


You are (Not) at Fault

by MisterHalt



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/M, Post-Third Impact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 253,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28933302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterHalt/pseuds/MisterHalt
Summary: Following Third Impact, Asuka Langley-Soryu is slowly coming to terms with her feelings for a certain boy - who has withdrawn so far into himself that she is the only thing still anchoring him to reality. The path to recovery will not be an easy one however, as an old threat rises anew.
Relationships: Ikari Shinji/Souryuu Asuka Langley
Comments: 4
Kudos: 71





	1. Chapter 1

On the shore a boy awoke, and stared up at the night sky.

A bloodied smear cut through the air and intersected the moon, almost as if someone had swiped a red paintbrush across a piece of art on a wall. He lay there on the beach, unmoving, unblinking. The rise and fall of his chest would be barely noticeable to anyone watching him, but there was nobody left to observe.

The guardian that had become his surrogate mother for almost a year had been shot while rescuing him, dying as he cried alone in an elevator.

The red-headed girl he might possibly have been in love with had just been savagely murdered, the remains presented to him as a gruesome trophy.

Travelling through a strange world inside his own mind, the boy could not find a single person that wanted him. Shinji Ikari was then given a choice. He felt it would be better if everyone on Earth, including himself, simply perished.

Shinji Ikari ended the world. In a moment of weakness brought on by a decade of pain, he had made the decision. Nobody on Earth cared about about a useless person like him, so why should he care about them?

The horrendous event that was Third Impact commenced. Man, woman, and child, none were spared. The borders between each person, the barrier known as an 'AT-Field', eroded and broke down. With nothing holding them together, humanity as a whole became merged into one single, 'perfect' being. Three billion lives became an immense orange sea of LCL, the primordial soup of life.

Within this strange ocean, Shinji came face to face with the power behind Third Impact. A blue-haired, red-eyed girl that had once been Rei Ayanami. She was now Lilith, the Second Angel and mother of humanity. Lilith offered him a choice again and, in a rare moment of strength, Shinji Ikari decided that even if the world would offer him nothing but pain, it did not deserve to live like this.

The boy eventually found himself lying on a shore, staring upwards at the sky. The full weight of his terrible decision came crashing down, and it petrified him. He had just committed the largest genocide the world had ever known. Three billion human lives snuffed out like a candle, and it was all his fault. Shinji Ikari opened his mouth and screamed to the heavens.

Uncaring, the heavens ignored him.

* * *

Time passed. Shinji's throat was still raw as he awoke. It was now night time and the chill breeze sliced through his thin clothing. Hugging himself to try and stay warm, he sat up and look around. A shocking sight met his gaze, and he recoiled in fear as he realised what it was. A massive face... no... _half_ a face lay on the ground some distance away behind a hill, looking almost exactly like Rei Ayanami. Shinji tore his eyes away from the gruesome scene as his stomach heaved, only to meet another terrifying vision.

The petrified remains of nine massive beasts, the Mass Production Evangelions, poked out of the red water all around him, each one with their arms outstretched and missing a head. His own head drooped and he relaxed slightly, realising that they were deactivated... _dead_.

The moonlight reflected off of something shiny hanging from his neck, and a shaky hand brought the item up to his eyes. A beautiful silver cross that had belonged to his guardian, Misato Katsuragi, before she had thrust it into his hands and shoved him in an elevator. With her last breath, his purple-haired guardian had saved his life as she sat on the floor, bleeding from a gunshot wound in her gut but still forcing him onward to his Evangelion.

Tears spattered on the ground in front of him, and his body was wracked by sobs as Shinji found himself reliving that moment in the elevator, staring at Misato's blood on his hands as he realised what his inaction had resulted in. He had been unwilling to do anything except hide in a corner, but Misato had dragged his worthless carcass across half of NERV in order to get him into Unit-01 and out to the Geofront to protect everyone, getting shot by the invading army in the process. It was _his_ fault that she had died, purely because he had been selfish and cowardly, waiting to perish.

_'If only I had actually **done** something, Misato wouldn't have been shot!' _ he thought, punching the ground with the fist holding her cross. ' _She was forced to almost carry me the entire way, and died because of it!'_ As he had ascended in the elevator he made the decision to pilot Unit-01, to help his fellow pilot Asuka. She was up in the Geofront, fighting alone against the nine harpies that were the Mass Production Series. The sight that greeted his eyes as the elevator doors opened, however, put a stop to that thought.

As Asuka berated him over the comm for his absence, he could do nothing but stare at Unit-01. Bakelite, that odd red substance that was like quick-dry cement, completely covered the purple machine. There was nothing he could have done from outside Unit-01 to break it, and as he sank to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest, all he could do was listen as the Mass Production Evangelions reactivated and tore Unit-02 apart.

As Maya Ibuki had cried over the comm that Asuka was dead, the cage had violently shaken around him. Unit-01 broke out of the Bakelite as if it wasn't even there. Why could it have not done that before? Why did it wait until it was too late to help before reaching out with a massive purple fist to the destroyed young man?

He knew the answer. The soul inside Unit-01, his own mother, obviously did not care about him either. She _wanted_ his heart shattered and his mind destroyed, in order to fulfil her plan of godhood. A massive blast destroyed the NERV pyramid in the Geofront, and Shinji ascended from the remains of NERV Headquarters inside Unit-01, not even remembering entering the plug. The last piece of reality heh saw was the remains of Unit-02, held aloft by the white harpies circling the Geofront.

The last thing he had heard was his own insane scream as his tortured mind finally fractured.

Wiping his eyes on his shirt sleeves, Shinji's weeping eventually stopped, and he leaned back against a piece of debris as the memories finally faded for the time being. A persistent rumbling noise from his stomach drew his attention, and Shinji idly wondered how long it had been since he had last eaten. There was no way to determine how long he had been lying on this shore awake, screaming, then unconscious. The moon had shifted, lower in the sky and no longer perfectly aligned with the red streak of blood that had spurted from the neck of the giant body of Lilith upon its death.

Eventually deciding that it must have been at least a whole day since he had returned, Shinji got to his feet, hung the cross back around his neck, and walked away from the shore in the direction of the ruined city of Tokyo-3.

* * *

Many buildings were destroyed, and those that were left standing did not look like they would remain that way for very long. As Shinji ambled down the street, he looked around in wonder.

_'What happened here? It looks like this entire city was bombed.'_

Searching the festering pit that was his memory, he managed to sidestep most of the horrible past that attempted to assault him and came up with the answer. The JSSDF had dropped an N2 mine on the city in order to open up the Geofront for the MP Evangelions to attack NERV, since Asuka in Unit-02 had been decimating their ground forces. Tanks, infantry and VTOLs were no match for an Evangelion and a pissed off German redhead.

Shinji felt a glimmer of pride flicker as he recalled hearing Asuka crow over the destruction she wrought on the JSSDF. Standing in the middle of a broken road, Shinji closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the memory of Asuka's exultant voice as tanks were flattened and aircraft were swatted out of the sky, before his eyes shot open and he grabbed his head in pain as the memory of what happened next attempted to make itself known.

Shaking his head and banishing those thoughts as best as he could, Shinji continued unsteadily through the city, searching for... what? Food? Water? A place to rest? No, the boy who ended life on Earth surely didn't deserve anything. But Shinji's stomach, disgruntled at the idea that it would not be filled, rumbled loudly. He tried to ignore it, but eventually he clutched his stomach and fell to his knees as the pangs of starvation started to hit him. The thought of the destroyer of humanity, brought to heel by their own stomach, would have brought a chuckle to his lips, if it hadn't been so damn morbid.

Five minutes later, Shinji dragged a piece of concrete debris around the edges of a window to deal with the jagged glass fragments so he could safely enter the store. Stepping gingerly through, a pungent odour of rotting food wafted into his nostrils, and he almost gagged at the stench. Pulling his shirt over his nose to try and block out the smell, Shinji carefully walked towards the back of the dimly lit convenience store to where the fridges for cold snacks and drinks sat. He opened the door and felt a faint cool breeze.

_'Can't have been gone too long then, if these fridges are still_ _a bit_ _cold,'_ Shinji mused, grabbing a bottle of water. He drank the entire bottle in seconds, not realising how truly thirsty he was. Another bottle was emptied before Shinji felt sated, and he picked up four more bottles. Placing these into a shopping bag he found behind the store counter, he half-heartedly acquiesced to his grumbling belly and picked up several bags of snacks as well as some tins of fruit. He absently wondered what to get for Asuka, before freezing as his hand automatically reached for what he knew to be her favourite chip flavour, when he was struck by the realisation.

The bag fell to the ground as fresh tears flowed down his face, and for several seconds the young boy shook as he tried to remain upright. Losing the battle, he collapsed roughly to the floor next to the bag, sobbing Asuka's name in between apologies.

It took an hour for the tortured boy to get back to his feet. As he listlessly picked up the bag and made to exit the store, Shinji caught his reflection in a metal shelf by the exit. Grief-stricken blue eyes tinged with red stared back at him under dishevelled, dusty brown hair. His white button-down shirt and black pants were also streaked with dirt, and as he exited the store, he idly attempted to brush some of it off before giving up as he bumped into a street sign. Looking up at the words imprinted on it, a thoughtful look crossed Shinji's face as he figured out where he was.

The convenience store he had just looted was the same one where he had found Asuka after the redhead stormed out of their synchronisation training. Knowing where he was now, he turned and slowly headed for Misato's apartment, lost in memories once again as that simultaneously horrible and wonderful week replayed itself in his head.

The sun had just begun peeking over the horizon when the apartment complex came into Shinji's view. Several damaged cars sat in the parking lot, one half-crushed under a large piece of masonry, but the building itself was miraculously still standing. Looking behind him, Shinji noticed that a large building standing between the apartment and where he believed the bomb had dropped was just barely upright. The building before that, however, was mostly rubble.

As he turned and walked towards the apartment's lobby entrance, a sigh of relief escaped his mouth as Shinji silently gave thanks that he wouldn't have to find somewhere else to sleep; it simply didn't feel right to break into somebody else's house. He barely felt like he deserved to sleep in Misato's apartment after everything that had happened, but he was too tired to find an alternative; climbing the stairs alone almost made him collapse from fatigue.

Reaching their apartment, Shinji stopped and stared at the door blocking his entrance. With no power in the city, even if he could unlock the door it would not open by itself. It took several minutes of effort to force the door to slide partially open, and he immediately collapsed in the door frame, his body almost completely drained. Shinji was barely able to even stand up, and he crawled on his hands and knees through the apartment to his bedroom before passing out from exhaustion in front of the bed.

* * *

Fifteen hours later Shinji got up...and immediately fell back down as his head impacted the bottom of the bed. He winced and rubbed the sore spot as he more carefully got up, still tired from the events of the last couple days, and now his body was aching from the hard floor. It felt like he hadn't slept at all, but at least he could stand up properly. Walking back to the front door where the bag of food and water still laid, he paused for a moment as he passed the doorway to Asuka's room and saw the state the German pilot had left it in. His legs started moving before he realised, and suddenly Shinji was in Asuka's room.

Torn books and magazines littered the ground amidst stuffing from a shredded pillow. A hair brush was almost completely embedded in the wall, and broken mirror shards crunched his shoes as Shinji slowly walked towards Asuka's bed. He was unsure what had caused her to do this to her own bedroom, but whatever it was must have been monumental. Even after all this time, it felt like he could sense Asuka's pain emanating from the walls.

A still-intact magazine was picked up in shaky hands, and placed on the dresser. Moving as if on autopilot, Shinji spent the next two hours tidying the room up, eyes distant as he once again relived the past. Garbage bags were retrieved from under the kitchen sink, and anything broken was tossed into them. The bed was made, fresh sheets and a new pillow retrieved from the linen cupboard, and a window was opened to allow fresh air into the stale room. It was only when his stomach started growling again that Shinji finally stopped.

The room now looked almost immaculate once more, except for the hole in the wall, but Shinji knew there was nothing he could do about _that_. Heading for the front door, he retrieved the food and water, depositing them on the kitchen table. A chocolate bar vanished down his throat in seconds, and a bag of chips and a bottle of water followed shortly after. He briefly considered storing the rest in the fridge, but as there was no power, it had probably lost its cooling ability for a while now; the stores fridges had been barely above lukewarm themselves.

A small smile made its way onto his face as Shinji imagined the reaction of his guardian taking one of her massive gulps of a now-warm beer, before freezing in disgust and spraying it all over the kitchen. She would definitely not be doing her usual breakfast cheer then. Perhaps the entire floor of the building would be rudely awoken by her cursing. The smile soured and the happy thought dissolved when he remembered that there was nobody for her to awaken. There was not even a Misato to spit the beer out.

There was only him. Shinji Ikari. The boy who ended the world and stuck around.

Shinji's head gently banged against his arm on the kitchen table as he remembered that because of his second choice, Rei -or was it still Lilith?- had told him that humanity would return. But there was no Misato. No Toji or Kensuke, no Pen-Pen, no... no Asuka either. No longer would Asuka call him an idiot, or tell him to stop apologising, or even just glare at him with those beautiful sapphire eyes.

For the third time in as many days, Shinji cried.

_'Asuka's not here... Rei... Lilith... did she lie to me?_ _I guess_ _nobody_ _wants_ _to come back_ _if_ _I'm here. Who would want to be on the same planet as me? I'm the one that sent them all to hell. It's because of me that they're all in that ocean. Maybe it was dumb of me to return, but I don't deserve to be with them. Maybe it's better in there._ _T_ _his must be my penance. To live alone in the ruins of humanity while they all have perfect lives. Misato and Asuka must be having a ball, without me around to ruin everything for them.'_

Shinji eventually got up from the table, and cleaned the rest of the apartment; the menial task helped to keep his mind occupied with simple thoughts. While the blast had not severely damaged the building, there were still broken dishes and knocked over furniture to clear up. The balcony windows were riddled with cracks, but they held together as Shinji opened the sliding door and stepped out to tidy up.

The moon with its red streak hung almost directly above, and Shinji realised that it must be nearly midnight already. Placing the garbage bags outside the front door, he retired to his bedroom and the comfort of an actual bed instead of the hard ground like the last two nights. Shinji closed his eyes, and waited for sleep to take him.

Three hours later, Shinji found himself hunched over in the bathroom, purging the meagre contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl. He had awoken just seconds before, sweat pouring off of him and soaking his white shirt so much it was almost transparent, rushing to the toilet and only just making it. The nightmarish screams still echoed in his mind, and his stomach heaved again. After around fifteen minutes, Shinji's guts stopped trying to force their way out of him as he stood up and absently hit the flush button on the toilet.

He was mildly surprised when the toilet actually flushed. There was no power in the city, yet the plumbing still worked. How long would that last though? At least that meant he could wash his mouth out with the tap instead of using bottled water. Spitting the foul muck out, Shinji raised his head to the mirror and was only somewhat surprised by his reflection. His hair looked even worse, his eyes were bloodshot, and his shirt had a small spattering of vomit near the collar to complement the sweat stains. This was tossed into the laundry basket and a clean shirt was fetched from his small closet. He didn't bother buttoning it up as he collapsed onto the bed, too tired to care about how he looked. After all, there was nobody around to see him anymore.

He was back in the bathroom two hours later, the image of a mutilated red cyborg fresh in his mind.

* * *

Blood dripped onto the hard linoleum floor. Blank eyes stared at the red stain on the ground for a moment before Shinji remembered what he was supposed to do. The small blade in his right hand came up over his left, before rapidly descending. It stabbed hard, breaking through the plastic and allowing Shinji to finally rip it open and retrieve the bandages from within. Slowly and carefully, he poured half a water bottle over his thigh, before drying it and wrapping the white gauze around where he had cut himself after tripping while climbing through the pharmacy window.

After two more sleepless nights, constantly plagued by screams and visions of Asuka's Evangelion whenever he nodded off, Shinji had decided to see if there was something he could take to stop the nightmares. The only easy source of alcohol was Misato's beer, which was warm and disgusting. He had immediately tipped the rest of the can out in the sink. He had once overheard in class that a fellow student had stopped his bad dreams by pinching a couple of his father's sleeping pills, so he looked for those behind the counter. He could not even begin to pronounce some of the drug names, so he simply looked for labels that mentioned sleeping and drowsiness. A bottle of pills was eventually found and shoved into a bag, and as an afterthought, some more bandages and other medical supplies went in after them.

Stopping at home to drop the bag off in his room, Shinji left the apartment again to procure more food. The gas stove still functioned, for now, but even his culinary skills couldn't do anything for the instant meals Misato seemed to live off of. After two attempts to make them taste anything but awful, he had given up. The rest of the meals had gone straight into the garbage bags and out the door, and now Shinji was once again looting the convenience store. Several bags of rice were placed in a basket along with more water and assorted tins of preserved food.

Then something caught his attention.

“Whoa,” Shinji breathed, staring in awe at the item in question: an incredibly large block of chocolate, bigger than his own head. He reverentially picked it up and laid it atop the food in the basket. Armed with as much foodstuff as he could carry, Shinji strolled home.

He unpacked everything in the kitchen, but the chocolate was carefully placed to one side. Shinji noticed that he was starting to run out of space, and so a terrible, fateful decision was made. Garbage bags were pulled out again, the fridge was opened, and every single can of beer was emptied into the sink and thrown in a bag while a gloomy look crossed his face. Misato was no longer around to drink the beer, even if she could power through the awful taste of warm booze, and Shinji had no use for it. Two bags of cans joined those by the door, and Shinji made a note to take them down to the dumpster the next day before they started to smell.

The weather had been strangely cool lately, so Shinji saw no eventual problem with his actions as he knelt down besides Asuka's bed and placed the large chocolate bar under the pillow. Any sunlight that made it in would be blocked by the pillows anyway. Standing up and closing his eyes, against the tears that threatened to come forth, Shinji made a promise to himself: he would not eat this chocolate, even on pain of death by starvation.

It was a dumb, completely pointless promise given the state of the world, but the bar would serve as a constant reminder of what inaction had cost him. If he had only 'been a man' and reached out to her sooner, perhaps none of this would have happened. Perhaps she wouldn't have rejected him, when he found himself in this same apartment, in that strange orange world, arguing with her in the kitchen. Shinji had been starting to lose his identity, barely able to tell himself apart from anyone else. He had _begged_ Asuka to help him, to not leave him. Asuka replied with only one word. The word he had been hoping not to hear.

_"No."_

That was when his heart, already in pieces, had disintegrated as his hands closed around the redhead's throat and strangled her. She had offered no resistance, simply staring coldly at him as her life faded. It was shortly after that moment, as Asuka's eyes rolled up into her head, that Shinji had made that first decision: if the world didn't care about him and offered nothing but pain, then everybody could simply die.

Shinji's head jerked up as the screams started once again, suddenly silenced as the bedroom came back into focus. He had obviously nodded off while remembering. Stumbling into the kitchen, he grabbed one of the sleeping pill bottles and opened it, tipping a couple of tablets into his hand. The boy stared at the pills for a long time, trying to decide if they would even work. Finally deciding that in his current state he didn't have much else to lose, he brought his hand to his mouth, tilted his head back and swallowed the pills dry.

“I wonder... will anyone ever return?” Shinji mused out loud, staring up at the somewhat familiar ceiling as he waited for the pills to take effect. “Maybe Lilith didn't really lie... and people just aren't ready to return yet. But _why_ aren't they ready? Is it because I'm here that they won't return? My decision to come back, it must have been a mistake. But... there's nothing I can do about it now... is there?” The ceiling had no answers for him, so he rolled onto his side, facing the windowless wall, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Shinji awoke feeling, if not refreshed, then at least a bit better. For the last few nights he had taken the pills before going to bed. They seemed to be working, at least as far as he could tell. He had an inkling that the nightmares had not disappeared, but he merely didn't remember them. That was good enough for him.

Now he just had to take the pills every night until he died. Even with the several bottles he had taken from the pharmacy, eventually he would run out. Perhaps humanity would have returned by then. How could he then justify needing sleeping pills to anyone who got suspicious? Shinji had a feeling that saying “I destroyed humanity and now I suffer for it every night” would not get him medication, but rather a one-way trip to either prison or a mental hospital. Or an execution. None of them sounded like a good idea, especially being locked up _and_ mentally tortured.

The pharmacy was soon looted again, a backpack stuffed full of drugs and hidden under Shinji's bed, away from any prying eyes that may eventually turn up. Now if only there were something he could do about the involuntary daydreams.

Since there was no electricity Shinji was relying on his old SDAT and a stockpile of batteries, as well as some rather thick novels pinched from a local library, to while away the hours. No power meant no television, and there would be no stations broadcasting to watch anyway. However, Shinji quickly grew bored, which meant his mind would start drifting like a leaf on the wind. And whenever it landed, the boy would usually find himself weeping into the couch, and occasionally running to the bathroom to vomit. Sometimes he was surprised there was even anything left in his stomach to give to the toilet, considering how little he felt like eating at times.

Eventually, the cross still hanging around his neck gave him an idea. Perhaps what he needed to soothe his mind was a memorial to those whose lives he had stolen. It would be paltry, as he couldn't exactly build a statue, but surely it was the thought that counted, right?

“Where could I build it though?” Shinji asked himself. “Should I do it on the roof of this building? The middle of a park? No, it needs to be somewhere the whole world could see it, somewhere like...” His eyes widened as the plan formed. “The sea of LCL. The place where humanity is trapped. If they ever came back, perhaps the first thing they'd see would be the memorial.” A wistful, tiny smile grew on his face at the thought.

Now that he had the plan formed, he set out. The apartment was closed up to prevent the weather and any possible vermin from getting in. It had rained all last night, and the watery scent filled his lungs as Shinji stepped out onto the pavement.

The best way to get back to the beach was to retrace his steps, so his first stop was the convenience store, where more food was picked up for the relatively long trip. He did not notice, or particularly care, that most of the food he picked was things that Asuka enjoyed. It all went into another backpack he had liberated from a department store the day before. Shinji wasn't sure if he'd be able to get back to the apartment by nightfall, and decided not to take any chances. He hoped that it wouldn't rain again while he was setting up the memorial.

The beach was eerily quiet. Setting the backpack down out of the way, Shinji set about gathering wood for his memorial. The only thing he could think of that was in his meagre ability to create was a set of crosses for each of the important people in his life. Those who, while probably not really caring about him, still at least made the effort to acknowledge his presence. Misato and Kaji, Toji and Kensuke, Hikari, Rei, Kaworu... Asuka...

The tears came again, but Shinji ignored them and continued on. A long piece of wood was stabbed deep into the soft sand, and a horizontal piece was attached with some old nails and a good-sized chunk of concrete used as a hammer.

Several hours passed. Eight crosses were made, all standing next to each other, and a larger nail was used to scratch a name on each cross. Shinji slowly removed the shining silver cross from around his neck and hung it on Misato's memorial, completing the picture he had formed in his mind several hours ago. He sat back on his haunches and wiped his eyes clear, solidifying the image in his mind.

_'I'll have to come back in a few days, just to make sure they're still standing. Perhaps I should come here once a week, like some sort of pilgrimage.'_

Looking up, he saw that the moon was peeking over the ruined buildings, and yawned as he felt the fatigue of a long day spent walking and working. Shinji picked up the backpack and sat down in front of the memorial, staring out across the ocean. Something seemed odd with the picture however, and it took him a moment to notice that the Mass Production Evangelions were... sinking? The last time he had seen them, over a week ago, he could have sworn they were standing perfectly upright. Now they were listing to one side, and the... liquid was up to their thighs.

“Huh, maybe the sea is attempting to claim them, drag them down to a watery grave,” Shinji muttered to himself. A chocolate bar and a bottle of water were consumed as a very late, and very meagre, dinner. His hand rummaged through his backpack, and then froze. Shinji's eyes widened as he frantically turned the bag upside down, tipped everything out and began searching through the pile of food. Then, after rubbing his eyes, he searched again.

The pills he had relied on for the past week remained absent. The backpack was angrily hurled into the ocean as Shinji realised that in his haste to come to the beach and set up the memorial, he had neglected to pack the most important thing he needed: his respite from the demons that haunted his sleep.

The nightmares returned with a vengeance as soon as Shinji's eyes shut, no longer able to keep them open. The harpies circled the Geofront once again, their horrific faces leering at the boy. Asuka's shattered and dismembered Evangelion stared accusingly at him as its pilot lay dead inside the massive corpse. All overlaid by the screams of the dying, and accompanied by Asuka's words in his own head as she refused to help him, to stop him fading away. While his mind was being tortured once more, Shinji's body twisted and writhed on the beach, as if trying to escape from something that wasn't there.

* * *

On the shore a boy awoke, and stared up at the night sky.

The gentle lapping of waves filled his ears as the demons retreated into the back of his mind. The sound of something plopping into water eventually caught his attention. Slowly craning his head to the left, Shinji saw Rei Ayanami, or possibly Lilith, hovering above the water. Hollow blue eyes locked onto red, and the two simply stared at each other. Shinji could swear that he did not even blink, but just as suddenly as she appeared, Rei/Lilith vanished.

He slowly sat up, scanning the space where she had disappeared, but the girl remained absent. Something on the beach next to him caught his eye, and Shinji looked down to see a red-haired girl in a matching red plugsuit. Her right arm was bandaged all the way up to the shoulder, and her left eye was also covered. The right eye, however, stared blankly up at the sky, unblinking.

_'Asuka...? Could it be... no... this is a trick. Asuka's dead! My own mind is playing tricks on me! The real Asuka wouldn't just lay there, she'd be up and bossing me around. This... **thing** is a fake, a... a doll placed here to torment me!'_

Suddenly, Shinji found himself straddling Asuka, his trembling hands wrapped around her slim neck, slowly choking her. Asuka had the same look in her remaining eye Shinji had worn for the past week.

_'She's_ _not real_ _... she's_ _not real_ _... she's_ _not real_ _... she's_ _not_ _-'_

The feeling of a warm hand on his cheek broke Shinji out of his litany. Asuka's bandaged arm had lifted off the sand, and her hand was slowly caressing his face.

_'What... this isn't... she_ _**is**_ _real?! Asuka... could it really be her? My mind_ _ **isn't**_ _tormenting me again?'_

Shinji's hands slowly let go of Asuka's neck, allowing her to breathe once more. Tears fell from his eyes and landed softly on the girl's face as the revelation set in. He slumped over on top of the girl, sobbing softly.

_'It's her, it has to be! Asuka came back! Lilith didn't lie to me after all! And... oh god, I was... strangling her... again! I... I_ _have to_ _apologise. Yeah, I'll tell her I'm sorry, she'll call me an idiot... we'll both get up, go home and wait for the others to arrive. Everything will be back to nor-'_

“Disgusting...” The quietly spoken words derailed Shinji's train of thought. That one word, and the tone in Asuka's voice, formed a ball of ice in Shinji's gut as his sobs halted and he stared in horror at the plugsuit filling his vision.

_'She... she **knows**... Asuka **knows** what happened! What I did to her in the hospital! No... nonono... she can't forgive that. I practically **raped** her! She won't want to be around the freak who did that to her! Noone would! I should have never returned!'_

The fading sound of running feet was the last thing Asuka heard before she slipped into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

On the shore a girl awoke, and felt nothing but pain.

Asuka Langley-Soryu was no stranger to injury. Nearly a decade of pilot training had resulted in many bumps and bruises. Her right arm had even been broken during a rather intense sparring match. Exhaustion had set in, but the prideful redhead had refused to stop. All it had taken was a simple misstep and Asuka had been put out of action for nearly six weeks. While she hadn't mind a bit of relaxation to begin with, after the second week she had been spotted sneaking into the training gym, much to the despair of her teachers. They had eventually had to threaten the redhead with restraints before she would stop trying.

Feeling her entire body wracked with pain was new to Asuka; every fibre of her being shrieked in agony. She was literally unable to move. Helpless, she could do nothing but stare at a sky that appeared to be filled with red, as well as a moon with a gory streak of blood bisecting it. Idly, the girl wondered why she couldn't see out of her left eye, as she heard the plunk of something dropping into water nearby. Asuka attempted to turn her head, but even that was too much effort for her body, pushed well beyond its tolerances.

_'What the hell is wrong with me? **Scheiße**_ , w _hy can't I move? Have I been paralysed?'_ Her mind raced while her body lay idle, trying to piece together what had led her to be laying... where? The sound of waves told her she was near a body of water, but her nose could mostly smell blood in the air, as if something had been slaughtered nearby. She would not know until much later how close that was to the truth.

_'I remember... what? White Evas... I was obliterating them, even after they cut my Unit's power cord. But then... they got up. I killed them and they just **got back up!** I was winning damnit! How dare they cheat! And Ikari! The stupid Third Child was nowhere to be found as usual, probably had those dumb headphones on while I was calling for him.'_

A shadow passed over her, and as Asuka attempted to focus her remaining eye on this sudden interruption to her introspection, she felt trembling hands grip her throat. Unruly brown hair hovered near her face and faint whimpering, so familiar after her time in Tokyo-3, told her who the owner of the hands was.

_'_ _Wait,_ _**he's** _ _here too? Stupid Shinji is here? Where are we? W-why the hell are you strangling me, you idiot?_ _What the hell is going on?! Answer me!'_ The anger rapidly drained from her. _'Is...is this how I make you feel, Ikari? You want to... kill me, is that it?_ _W_ _ell_ _..._ _I can't exactly say I blame you. After all, I've done nothing but harass and ridicule you ever since I came to Japan. Why has it taken this long for you to express how I make you feel? Why didn't you say anything?! Talk to me!'_

A flash of light, and she was back in her Evangelion, blood pouring from her destroyed eye as the Mass Production Evangelions swooped down and began tearing at her Unit-02. Despite running out of power, she could vividly _feel_ their claws in her own stomach as they ripped through the armour and tore out her Evangelion's internal organs. Her back arched, throwing her body away from the pilot seat as if she could escape the attack. Outside, the white harpies took to the sky, intestines firmly in their mouths as they desecrated their kill. A flash again, and she was back staring at the brown hair in front of her face.

_'Oh god, he's sitting right on my stomach. I feel sick, I was **disembowelled,** and he's on my _ stomach _.'_

Her right hand clenched slowly, and she finally noticed the vague sensation of cloth tightly wrapped around her arm, from her shoulder all the way to the palm of her hand. She remembered the final assault by the harpies now. Left arm clutching at her ruined face, right arm raised towards the light coming through the roof of the Geofront. Only barely cognizant of the fact that her Evangelion was still mimicking her movements. Only one thought on her mind: 'I'll kill you... I'll kill you... I'll kill you...'

The sudden shock of her right arm splitting in half around the light as a hurled lanced destroyed Unit-02's upraised hand, and hers with it. Finally, as if to ensure her death as painfully as possible, several more lances stabbed through her Evangelion, the same injuries appearing on her own body.

As she passed mercifully into unconsciousness and eventually death, Asuka felt a deep rumbling as the earth around her shook. The last piece of reality she saw was Unit-01 ascending through the Geofront on giant wings of light. The last thing she heard as her right eye finally closed was the insane scream of a boy who had arrived too late.

Returning to the present, Asuka could feel herself slowly running out of oxygen. Shinji's hands were still choking her, despite the lack of strength behind them. She was going to die, Asuka knew that. Her murderer would be the sad young boy who could never stand up to her, because she had always knocked him down whenever he tried. Asuka's constant attempts to get the Third Child to notice and react to her had failed, because he was scared... no, because he was _terrified_ of her. Yet he somehow managed to keep a smile on his face whenever he served her meals or cleaned and tidied her belongings. She had never thanked him for _anything_ he had done for her, simply abusing him whenever something, no matter how minor, was not done to her exact demands. Was it any wonder the most common word out of the Third Child's mouth was “sorry”?

_'I kept telling him to stop apologising, and then acted as if everything was his fault. He'd say sorry, then apologise for saying sorry. Stupid Shinji. Wait, no... Stupid **Asuka...'**_

Summoning as much of her dwindling strength as she could muster, Asuka directed all of it into her right arm, moving it up at a glacial pace. She cupped Shinji's cheek, and she heard a faint gasp as Shinji felt her warm touch. His head shot up, and cobalt eyes locked onto her remaining sapphire eye.

She could not help but notice the lack of light in those perpetually sad orbs. Even when he had been in one of his depressive states, Shinji's eyes had always had some life in them. Now, they looked distant, dead. Shinji seemed to be staring through her, as if not truly aware of the situation. Asuka slowly, gently, stroked his cheek, his heat leeching into the palm of her hand and somehow mildly soothing the pain, trying to convey solely in her hand what she lacked the strength to say aloud.

_'Looks like it's my turn now. I'm sorry, Shinji. For everything I forced you to put up with, including myself, I am sorry.'_

She felt his hands unclench from around her throat, and her lungs inhaled instantly, desperate for oxygen. Her arm fell back to her side, devoid of strength after the herculean effort of lifting it. Asuka felt water dripping onto her face as the boy above her finally broke down and sobbed openly, trying to curl into a ball while still straddling the redhead. As Asuka's remaining eye slowly moved down, she noticed how unkempt his appearance was. His hair was filled with sand, and his shirt was dirty and unbuttoned. He smelled like stale sweat, as if he hadn't bathed in days, mixed with... fear?

_'Oh no... Shinji, stop crying, I'm fine. No wait... I feel like I'm going to throw up, and your dirty butt on my stomach isn't helping matters. Move your ass, Ikari, before I hurl! Ugh, I feel so...'_

“Disgusting...”

The sobbing stopped instantly as she finally managed to speak. The two teenagers were both still for what felt like an eternity, before a sudden burst of movement from Shinji surprised Asuka. As if rising from a starting block, he got to his feet and took off, leaving a shocked girl behind him.

“Shin... ji...” Asuka struggled to call out to him. It was barely a whisper, and even if he had heard it, she knew he wouldn't stop. The fading sound of running feet was the last thing Asuka heard before she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Several hours later, Asuka awoke to a somewhat pleasing discovery. The pain had dulled itself somewhat, and she was finally able to move her limbs. It still took many minutes to summon the strength to sit up, and the first thing she saw was so surprising Asuka nearly lost her battle with gravity, barely managing to get her arms behind her to prop her body up.

A vast sea of red stretched out before the Second Child. She finally realised what the strange blood smell was: LCL, the same fluid that was used in the Evangelions for synchronisation and shock absorption. The smell was _much_ stronger now, and it alone was almost enough to make Asuka vomit.

The vision of a mountain-sized face, bisected cleanly through the centre, broke her attention away from the scent of blood long enough for her stomach to settle down again.

For a long while, Asuka could do nothing but stare at the decaying, smiling half-face of her former fellow pilot Rei Ayanami, destroyed buildings littering the area around the giant mass of white flesh. Even the decapitated statues dotting the sea around her was not enough to shift her gaze from that one building-sized eye staring back at her.

It was only when the redhead's arms began to tremble under her weight that Asuka eventually lowered herself back to the ground. With nothing else to do while she recuperated, the girl began to think to herself, pondering how she had ended up on the beach near a destroyed city, being strangled by her room-mate and fellow pilot.

_'Let's see, what **do** I remember? That scream... that awful, terrible scream. Nothing human should make a sound like that. It was Shinji, wasn't it? He finally shows up, and gets greeted by a mutilated carcass where he expects to see me.'_ Asuka frowned, her mind working overtime with the limited information she possessed. Her attention had been purely on the battle in the Geofront. She only vaguely recalled people yelling over the comm link, so focused was she on killing the Mass Production Evangelions. _'Surely that wouldn't be enough for him to scream like that, right? He surely hates me after everything I've done to him. Something else must have happened.'_

A shiver coursed through her body as the wind picked up, chilling her through the thin material of the plugsuit. The suit was a marvel of modern technology, containing various medical devices and display systems, but it had little to no insulation. Since the majority of their plugsuit time was in an entry plug, the LCL would be temperature-controlled for the comfort of the pilot. Outside, exposed to open air, there would be little protection from the elements. Adding to that the fact that it was the middle of the night, according to the position of the blood-stained moon, and it was little surprise that Asuka was starting to freeze.

She wrapped her arms around herself, struggling to retain her precious body heat, and curled up into a ball. The fact that all her limbs appeared to be fully functional dispelled the earlier worry that she was paralysed, and a small smile grew on her face at the realisation.

Unwilling to stare at the strange sight in the sky above, or the more disturbing one sitting in the hills, Asuka turned her whole body to the left. While the pain in her body had dulled, every movement in her right arm sent worrying jolts up the limb, and Asuka grew slightly afraid. Were the bandages the only thing keeping her split arm together? She decided not to remove them, remembering an old adage her grandmother, a retired haberdasher she always called “Granny Cosmo”, once told her after a very young Asuka had scraped her knee. The old woman had retrieved the first-aid kit, placed the girl on her lap, and cleaned the injury up before placing a band-aid on it, before warning her that “it won't get better if you pick at it”.

Her left side touched the ground, and she saw something unusual. She raised her head slightly, and brushed some hair out of her eye. A small pile of food and water lay before Asuka, carelessly discarded by someone. Before the redhead could determine who could have left it, she was rudely interrupted by her stomach growling angrily.

Asuka pressed a hand to her belly as she grimly remembered the last time she had eaten. It had been... just before the phone call from her stepmother. How long ago was that now? Asuka, Shinji and Misato had been silently eating dinner. She couldn't remember what Shinji had made, only that whatever it was, it had been utterly delicious as usual. Whatever else she said about the Third Child, she privately admitted that he knew how to cook like a professional chef.

_'Of course, it was either him or Misato doing the cooking.'_ Asuka wryly thought. _'And I'd rather starve to death than eat Misato's culinary disasters. That crazy woman could set **cereal** on fire, and she'd still eat it and consider it a masterpiece!'_

Spurred on by her complaining belly, anxious for sustenance, Asuka crawled over to the food pile. It had taken her a while to get used to some of the strange flavours Japan seemed to have in abundance, and Asuka was thankful that she was now accustomed to the tastes of many new snack foods. Her heart, or rather her stomach, would always belong to German cuisine however. The thought had once occurred to her to ask -no, back then it would have been a _demand_ \- for Shinji to make bratwurst, but it had been pushed to the back of her mind during the week they had been forced to spend together while training to fight the Seventh Angel.

Turning back to the present. Asuka eagerly ripped open a bag of steak-flavoured chips, devouring them with glee. Her stomach finally settled as it was filled, and her nose no longer noticed the pervasive stench of blood in the air. The girl discarded the empty packet to the wind, and started sifting through the rest of the food. She was amazed to discover that the majority was comprised of snacks she enjoyed. During the search, she discovered something that brought a wide smile to her face. A small green cigarette lighter was held up to her face, as if she could not believe her eyes. Now she would not have to worry about freezing if she could find something flammable.

Asuka cast her gaze about, and she quickly spotted an easy source of wood. A series of crosses stood in a row behind where she had been sitting.

After a few false starts, Asuka eventually climbed to her feet, her legs shaking slightly as she stood upright. Her muscles complained of the effort she was putting them through as she slowly walked towards the crosses. A tired brain eventually realised that something was amiss with this surprisingly adjacent fuel source. Looking closer, she saw a glint of moonlight reflecting off one of the crosses. Asuka fell to her knees in shock as the girl realised what she was looking at.

A silver cross hanging on a nail, its chain dangling and swaying slightly in the breeze, with a red splotch spattered across its surface.

Her left hand, still clutching the lighter, flew to her mouth as she recognised the distinctive item. It was Misato Katsuragi's cross, something the woman had worn for as long as Asuka had known her. Her right hand slowly reached out, and her thumb rubbed at the red stain. It flaked off slightly, and Asuka realised that it was blood. The stain was completely dry, and the necklace had obviously ended up in Shinji's possession. Misato was dead, and he must have been with her.

Their guardian had given her life to protect Shinji.

Asuka glanced at the other crosses, and she made out names scratched into their surfaces. Her ability to read the Japanese language was not as good as her ability to speak it, but she was easily able to make out the names of her classmates, someone called Kaworu Nagisa who she had never heard of, Kaji's name...

And her own name.

Asuka froze in surprise as everything she had recently seen finally came together. A ruined city. A sea filled with blood. The gigantic corpse face. The streak of red across the sky. Asuka had heard rumours of Third Impact. The supposed cataclysm that would occur if an Angel were to make it through NERV's defenses to whatever lay deep beneath the earth. Humanity would be wiped out, swept from the face of the earth as if they had never existed. It was now clear that the hypothetical had become reality.

An uneasy feeling swept through the girl's body as Asuka started turning things over in her mind. She had obviously survived the end of the world, despite the best efforts of the Mass Production Evangelions, so why did she have a grave marker? Shinji was also alive, and there was no cross bearing his name. Kaji's marker lent serious weight to what Shinji had tried to tell her before she had run away and ended up in an abandoned house, sitting naked in a rusty bathtub as she slowly bled to death.

There were supposed to be no more angels, so it could not have been them that triggered Third Impact. Those Mass Production Evangelions, those white demons of SEELE that were even now slowly sinking into the water, could they have done it? They had been sent to NERV to... what? Capture something? Kill everyone? They might have been the ones to trigger Third Impact. Asuka regretted not paying more attention to whatever the bridge crew had been yelling about during her fight.

And then there was the state of Shinji's appearance. The dead look in his eyes and vacant expression on his face. Not even at her most venomous had Asuka ever seen the Third Child look at her like that. Shinji was somehow involved with this catastrophe. Was he the one that caused Third Impact? No, one of her favourite jabs at Shinji he was too passive. Had he merely been a witness, forced to watch as everyone around him died? But why then would Shinji try and kill her, instead of welcoming her back to the land of the living?

There were far too many pieces of an increasingly disturbing puzzle missing, and one of them had just recently run off. Asuka shivered and hugged herself as the wind picked up again. She decided to postpone her... investigation until she could locate Shinji. Before that could happen though, she needed rest and warmth. The grave markers were left alone. Despite the strain it took on her tired and injured body, Asuka managed to scrounge up more wood and got a small fire going quickly.

After downing an entire bottle of water, a rummage through the small food pile turned up another packet of steak-flavoured chips, as well as a chip flavour that made her hesitate for a moment. She only knew one person who would eat sesame chicken flavour. That bag was set aside, just in case Shinji came back. Asuka's hopes were low that he would return, but the Third Child had surprised her before. Like jumping into a volcano to save her...

She finally lay down as close as she dared to the crackling flames. Resting her head on her uninjured arm, Asuka eventually drifted off into an uneasy, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Under a red sky, a girl dozed, and felt nothing but warmth.

Asuka stretched out her arms, attempting to bring the warmth closer. A twinge of pain shot through her right arm as the person carrying her stumbled slightly at the sudden intimate contact, but she ignored it, concentrating solely on the heat source.

“Mmm, Kaji,” she mumbled sleepily. This wasn't the first time Kaji had had to carry her to bed after a long day of work inside Unit-02. “I'm still so tired. They had me in the entry plug for hours and I'm exhausted.”

Despite the lack of response, Asuka pulled herself as close as she could. The girl had never felt this comfortable in a long time, and she didn't want to fully wake up without a damn good reason. Asuka would eventually have to go to school unfortunately. The classes were utterly boring, as she already knew everything they were teaching. The only things to look forward to would be chatting with Hikari and enjoying whatever Shinji had made for their lunches.

Maybe she should do something nice for him one day. Shinji's boxed lunches were excellent, and dinner at the Katsuragi household was heavenly when their guardian was kept away from the kitchen. Tomorrow, she'll take him shopping, and teach him how to make some dishes from her homeland. If Shinji could make Japanese food taste divine, what wonders could he produce with German cuisine? Asuka almost drooled at the thought of a traditional German dinner created by the Third Child before remembering something.

“I had this really weird dream, Kaji.” There was a moment of silence, and then a deep, questioning grunt came from her heat source. “I dreamed the world had been destroyed, and Wondergirl's stupid decapitated face was all giant and sitting in the hills near the city. The sea was red, and it looked like someone had taken a bucket of red paint to the sky.” No response came this time, but she continued regardless. “Yeah, pretty strange, huh?”

Asuka frowned as a few drops of water splashed on her face, and she yawned slightly as she realised she was being held in a bridal carry. Whoever was carrying her had just stepped over something. “Mmh... Kaji, are you taking me back to your place? Why didn't you bring an umbrella?”

She felt herself being lowered to the ground, and she grumpily protested as the heat source tried to get away. Asuka locked her arms around the person's neck, wanting to stay warm. A deep voice said, “Wait here, Asuka, I'll be back in a minute.”

“Oh, fine. I'll just lay here and freeze then. Hey Kaji, do you have a cold or something? You sound really weird. If I didn't know better I'd think you were Shin-”

Asuka's eyes shot open as she heard footsteps and a metal door slamming open. She was inside what appeared to be a service station, and the sound of rain on the roof was quickly increasing in volume. Her body felt sore again, probably from being carried, and it took her several agonising seconds to crawl to her feet. Shelves blocked her view of the windows looking out of the store, and it took far too long for her to stumble towards the front of the store and out under the roof protecting the fuel pumps.

Rain was pouring down relentlessly, and Asuka could barely make out a figure in a white shirt running down the street. Before she had a chance to call out to the fleeing boy, a bolt of lighting struck a building nearby, and the thunder nearly knocked her to the ground.

There was no sign of Shinji when she eventually straightened back up. Asuka's chance to get the answers she needed had fled as quickly as the storm rolling in across the ruined city. She dejectedly walked back into the store, sat down against the shop counter with her head on her arms, and watched the storm pound what remained of Tokyo-3. Asuka could not help but be thankful that Shinji had come back to her, if only to carry her to safety before running away again.

“You're a damn coward, Third Child... but... thank you,” she muttered to herself, before drifting off into sleep once more.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

  


“ _My darling...”_

  


“ _Mama...”_

  


“ _Asuka, my treasure...”_

  


“ _Mama, is it really you...?”_

  


The sun slowly rose over the city as the storm that had pounded the ruins of Tokyo-3 all night eased off into a light shower. In a still-intact building near the edge of the city, Asuka grumpily awoke as the sunlight streaming through the window moved over her face.

  


The memory of her dream rapidly drifted away as she got to her feet. She was cold and sore from her awkward sleeping posture, as well as annoyed at being dragged out of whatever nice dream she had been having. For the first time in a long time, she had been feeling... happy. During the night, she had sprawled out on the floor of the service station, and her right arm was now protesting at having been used as a pillow all night. Other parts of her body began chiming in as well, letting their aches be known as the rest of her body woke up.

  


“Wow, wonder if this is what Misato feels like after a night on the town,” Asuka muttered, carefully rubbing her right arm to try and ease the stiffness. She still didn't want to remove the bandages, but was surprised that she was not in more pain after the hideous wound the arm had received. There was not a single spot of blood on the bandages, even after two days, yet she distinctly recalled watching in horror as her arm separated from between the middle and ring finger nearly up to her shoulder.

  


After several minutes of contemplation, Asuka shook her head and decided to worry about it later as her stomach began growling. Recalling that all she had eaten since her awakening on the beach was a couple bags of chips, she started wandering around the store, seeing what was available.

  


The chips last night had merely taken the edge off her hunger, but two tins of preserved fruit practically poured straight down her throat certainly satiated her stomach. The empty tins were tossed into a corner of the store, and Asuka moved to the window. She gazed out at Tokyo-3 and the gradually slowing rain for a while, idly hoping for even a glimpse of a white shirt.

  


Asuka eventually realised the futility of that hope, and instead tried to focus on the dream that dawn had rudely interrupted. All that she could recall was the colour orange, as well as feeling immensely warm and snug. She released a loud sigh, before retreating to the store's bathroom to splash some water on her face. A horrific image stared back at her from the mirror when she raised her head from the sink.

  


Her once-brilliant red hair was a complete mess, now dull and sticking out all over the place. The red A-10 connectors were sitting lopsided, sand was still stuck in her hair, and she didn't even have a brush to fix it all up. Asuka had to grudgingly make do with her hands and the strange-smelling tap water.

  


“First order of business: find a shower,” Asuka said to herself as she adjusted the connectors and stared at the mediocre improvement in the mirror. “Ugh, Good thing there's nobody around to s-” she continued, before looking down and frowning when she realised what she was saying. After a moment, she stared at herself in the mirror again.

  


“Well, there no point sitting around feeling bad,” she decided with a determined look in her uncovered eye. Asuka turned around and almost left the bathroom, before stopping and turning back to the mirror as a thought occurred. She raised her left arm and gingerly patted the pad over her left eye. The sudden bolt of agony through her head was conspicuous by its absence. The frown returned to her face, and she poked the pad a little harder. There was... _something_ behind the pad, but her probing finger suddenly stopped.

  


A memory surfaced, of a two-pronged lance flying directly at her Evangelion's face, and the horrific explosion of pain in her own skull seconds afterwards. Her eye had been completely destroyed, and even now  she could still feel her lifeblood pouring through her gloved hand.

  


The staring contest with her own reflection continued for a few minutes as Asuka tried to work out what to do. Had her eye been somehow restored, or was it just wishful thinking that made her feel something under the pad? She could not tell if the eye was rotating in its socket, or even blinking. Surely the eyelid would at least be partially intact. Asuka shifted her one-eyed gaze to her right arm as suspicions started forming. Two crippling injuries, yet neither body part was even really sore now. She slapped her right hand against the side of the sink and, apart from the impact, felt only a moderate twinge run up her arm to her shoulder.

  


Asuka's left hand suddenly shot up to her face, and the gauze pad was violently ripped off before she could think twice. The only pain she felt was that of the tape pulling away from her skin, and her miraculously intact eye struggling to cope with the sudden influx of light. Even in the somewhat dark bathroom, only illuminated by a few small frosted glass windows near the ceiling, her sapphire eye almost teared up at the sudden influx of light. It took several long moments, but eventually Asuka stared at herself in the mirror with amazement.

  


_'It's... it's fine. My eye is perfectly fine! There's not even any scarring around the socket!'_ If there had been anyone else around, Asuka would still not have felt embarrassed as she began cheering. Now she no longer had to fear being undateable... if anyone else ever came back to life. Asuka slowed down as the thought occurred that she had been worried about getting a boyfriend in the middle of an apocalypse.

  


“Hah, The Third is the only one around, and he's too scared to even be on the same street as you. What the hell are you panicking about, Asuka? There's more important things to worry about right now than vanity.” Asuka chuckled softly at her reflection, before exiting the bathroom. Outside, the rain had finally ceased, and the grey clouds were starting to part and let in more sunlight. The still-working wall clock behind the counter showed that it was nearly ten o'clock.

  


“Well, there's no way I'm sleeping on the ground like an animal again,” Asuka declared to nobody in particular. “I'm going to go find myself a bed!”

  


* * *

  


The sun had just passed its zenith, and the irritated redhead was no closer to her dream of proper sleeping arrangements. The small area of Tokyo-3 she had explored so far seemed to be sorely lacking in well-stocked Western furniture stores. Asuka eventually remembered that she was completely on her own, and  grudgingly lowered her expectations from 'a proper king-sized bed' to 'something soft'. A store with several futons on display was then quickly discovered.

  


“I could have just slept in the store on one of those nice big beds, but... what if _he_ gets it into his head to come back to me again?” With the lack of people around Asuka had stopped keeping her thoughts inside her own head. Talking aloud helped her feel less... alone. “The last time he saw me was in the service station. He won't know where I've gone. I could leave a note, but knowing him, he'd probably miss it, or have no sense of direction in these ruins.”

  


After arguing with herself about what to do for several minutes, a plan was eventually hatched. It would take a couple of trips, but Asuka would have what could charitably be called a bed set up in the service station by the time she went to sleep. Blankets and pillows were taken from the bedding section she had spent the last hour in and dropped off just inside the door of her temporary new home.

  


Her second trip took her to an outdoor supply shop she had discovered during her original search. Asuka stepped into the store and grinned slightly as she realised that one of the Stooges from school, Kensuke Aida, would have loved this place. The military nerd was always talking about going off camping in the hills around Tokyo-3, and trying to convince others to join him in his 'war games'. She had no idea what actually went on up in the hills, but she had decided immediately to never take part in them. While Asuka had no plans of roughing it in the wilds, there was still several valuable items for her. A backpack was the first acquisition, followed by a sleeping bag and two heavy duty torches.

  


While Asuka wandered around the store looking for things on her 'shopping list', her mind too began to wander, and settled on one of the rare times the Second and Third Child had agreed on something. It had been sometime after the Tenth Angel, the one that had simply tried to land on Tokyo-3, and it had just been the two of them eating dinner, as Misato was working late as usual.

  


Asuka could not remember now who had started the conversation, but the topic had turned to their plugsuits, and their somewhat lacking design. Shinji had mentioned the annoyance of having to almost completely remove the suit when going to the bathroom, and Asuka had replied with a complaint about the lack of pockets.

  


“ _This is a freaking military organisation, and they didn't think to put_ pockets _on our damn_ uniforms! _Who the hell designed these?!_ ”

  


“ _Yeah, it's rather_ _annoying_ _. People always need pockets,' he said with a wry chuckle. “Hey Asuka, you've worn a plugsuit a lot longer than me, are these things designed to suck all the heat out of your body? I'm always close to shivering whenever I'm not in an entry plug while wearing them.”_

  


“ _Believe me, I know what you mean. I don't think the dumbass designers put any insulation at all in our plugsuits. I guess they decided that monitoring equipment is more important than keeping us from freezing our asses off.”_

  


“ _Do you think we can complain about it to someone?” Shinji had a thoughtful look on his face._

  


_Asuka rolled her eyes. “Of course not. They'd just make up some excuse about how insulation would interfere with our sync ratios or whatever. If not that, then they'll claim that the budget won't allow for plugsuit modifications.”_

  


“ _Remind me, they spend **how much** on the Evangelions themselves?” Shinji asked as he picked up both empty plates and placed them in the sink._

  


“ _Billions, probably. They're massive bipedal war machines with guns half as big as them. Doesn't mean they're gonna waste money on something they see as irrelevant.”_

  


“ _I wouldn't call catching pneumonia irrelevant. I've spent enough time in the NERV medical ward as is,” Shinji sighed. “I practically know half the nurses by name.”_

  


“ _Maybe you should try being a better pilot, then you won't be stuck in a hospital room so much. I mean, look at me! Ten years of training and the only time I was bedridden was because of a training accident.”_

  


Her train of thought was interrupted as she found the last item she was looking for, and potentially the most important. The lighter she had used on the beach was most likely still there, and she put the blame squarely on the NERV R&D department ; t here was no point blaming Shinji for  _everything_ . It was going to be another cold and wet night, and Asuka wanted to stave off the chill with a warm fire. Ominous clouds had gathered once more and were threatening rain in the next few hours. Third Impact had evidently wreaked havoc with the weather, and she wondered if it was going to be permanent like Second Impact.

  


Asuka stepped outside, laden with everything she felt necessary for her own comfort, and turned to head back 'home'. Her head turned sharply as the sound of shattering glass was heard nearby. Dropping the backpack on the pavement, she almost frantically dashed down the street to where she thought the sound had originated. She rounded a corner, and her heart sank as she found the source of the disturbance.

  


A window frame had apparently finally come loose from the damaged wall it had sat in, and fallen onto the pavement. Asuka did not even bother trying to pretend she wasn't disappointed by the false alarm, and a light rain began to fall as she picked up the backpack and trudged back the service station.

  


“My feet hurt,” she complained to the world at large.

  


That night, wrapped up in the sleeping bag with a couple of blankets cushioning the ground underneath her and a small fire flickering nearby,  Asuka gloomily stared out of the window. She would have given anything, even her probably-now-useless status as a pilot, to see a certain boy walk through the door.

  


For a lmost her entire life, Asuka had felt lonely and abandoned. She had spent so much time perfecting her piloting skills, desperately seeking praise from those around her, and almost no time simply trying to make friends. Hikari had become a close acquaintance, Rei was merely a co-worker, and Misato was just her guardian and superior officer. Asuka's attempts to get Shinji to look her had been ignored- no.

  


With the benefit of hindsight and nothing better to do than think ,  Asuka realised that the boy probably had noticed her attempts, but was too afraid to react to her. Even so,  Shinji was still the only one  she could even consider as a potential friend.

  


They had both been through the hell that was the Angel attacks, and the two of them had even spent a week practically glued to each other not long after meeting, thanks to Misato's insane plan for defeating the Seventh Angel. She had stormed out of the apartment after watching  Wondergirl succeed where she couldn't, and Shinji had ran after her.

  


After what was admittedly a rather lame speech about teamwork, Asuka haughtily claimed that a pep talk wasn't needed, but afterwards their training had improved significantly. They synchronised with each other perfectly and managed to take down a difficult Angel with perfect teamwork. The two Evangelions _had_ fallen on top of each other when the Angel self-destructed, but Asuka privately knew that neither pilot was to blame for it. She had merely lashed out at Shinji to burn off the built-up stress and anger, both from the mission and her feelings of rejection from the night before. Her subtle hints to Shinji about being alone in the apartment had apparently been _too_ subtle. How could he have not noticed the Wall of Jericho comment?

  


A loud yawn shook Asuka's body, and a glance at the clock showed that it was past midnight. She was surprised at how much time was just spent lost in the past. The fire was burning low, and would likely go out within the hour.  She gave up her silent vigil, curled up inside the sleeping bag, and eventually fell asleep.

  


* * *

  


“ _I don't_ want _to leave you! You're the only one who cares about me, Mama.”_

_  
_

_ “You know that's not true, my dear. There are other people who hold you in their heart.” _

_   
_

“ _What? Who-”_

  


Asuka was jolted awake by a peal of thunder that rattled the shelves and made the windows vibrate loudly. Outside, the mid-morning sky was dark and gloomy, but the rain was gradually slackening off. The door was slightly ajar, and Asuka was surprised by what felt like a slight cold breeze across her neck and chest. She looked down and noticed that her plugsuit had de-pressurised during the night, and was nearly falling off. The button on her wrist that usually made the suit form-fitting merely flashed red and beeped at her when she pressed it, and Asuka let out a muttered curse at the plugsuit. It had obviously run out of power while she was asleep.

  


“Guess I know what I'll be doing today. Clothes shopping.” Asuka wanted to feel excited at getting some new clothes, but the state of the world around her put a damper on that. “Well, it's a good excuse to get some freaking shoes. Another day of scavenging in this suit and I'd probably end up tying boards to my feet just so I don't have to keep accidentally stepping on debris.”

  


The soles of a plugsuit were little better than socks for protection, only consisting of rubber soles for traction. They were so thin Asuka could feel every tiny pebble and crack in the pavement she stepped on. She could only be glad that there hadn't been any sharp objects laying on the ground during her walk yesterday. Being unable to walk at a time like this would have been a nightmare .

  


Outside, the rain was now a mist, and felt cool and refreshing on  her face . The loose plugsuit was hiked up by her good arm. Asuka had doubts there was anyone around to see her in a state of partial undress, especially not a certain boy, but she really did not want to trip on her suit and fall over on the pavement. A twenty minute stroll brought her to a clothing store in a dark shopping mall, lit poorly by the massive skylights over Asuka's head. She switched on one of the flashlights she had retrieved yesterday, and the reflection on the store window nearly blinded her. Blinking to clear her watering eyes, Asuka eventually found the adjuster and dimmed the light to a level that she could tolerate, while cursing whoever had set the flashlight to its highest setting.

  


While the store she had picked probably didn't have the best selection, Asuka was not looking for high fashion. For almost the entire time she had been in Tokyo-3, it had been locked in what felt like mid-summer thanks to Second Impact knocking Earth off its natural axis. Now, possibly thanks to the end of the world, the weather was turning strangely cold, and a dress would not do very well at keeping a person warm. The sudden climate change now called for long sleeves, and possibly layers if it kept up like this.

  


Asuka spent an almost-enjoyable time picking a new outfit. With nobody around to impress with her fashion sense, she opted for a bright red jacket over a blue shirt and black pants. A few spare sets of underwear were placed in her backpack. She was careful putting her right arm through the sleeves, as Asuka was still wary of the damage it had received. Bending it still sent  the occasional tiny jolt up and down her arm. A short walk to a nearby shoe store netted her a pair of sturdy brown hiking shoes. Before leaving, Asuka took a long look at herself in a full-length mirror.

  


“Well, we might not win any prizes, but at least we'll be warm,” she told her reflection. As she was about to leave, something in the mirror made her turn back. A thin line of blood was trailing from her left eye down her cheek. Asuka quickly dabbed at her cheek with a sleeve, but it came back clean. She stared at her sleeve and frowned in confusion. Looking back at the mirror, she recoiled in horror, slamming her back into the shelves opposite the mirror. Shoe boxes fell down around her as she sat cowering on the floor.

  


Her reflection had a gaping black hole where the left eye should be, and blood was now pouring out of the empty socket. The Asuka in the mirror was also still wearing the red plugsuit, and its right arm hung loosely by its side, split in half and bleeding heavily on the floor. Asuka's own right arm began to throb with pain as the reflection brought its split limb up and began to clench it, as if attempting to strangle an enemy.

  


Asuka blinked, and the macabre reflection was gone, replaced by her own terrified image.

  


For a long while, Asuka could do nothing but sit in the store, surrounded by boxes, hugging herself as she tried to banish the waking nightmare she had just witnessed from her mind. For a brief moment, the white harpies were once again tearing at her body, their claws vivisecting her Evangelion as she lay helpless. A shudder went through her entire body as she got back to her feet, and her head was downcast as she picked up her discarded plugsuit and flashlight. These were roughly shoved into her backpack, and Asuka left the mall.

  


Outside, the clouds were beginning to part, and the shadows were long as a weak late-afternoon sun shone through the city. The strange red line cutting through the sky was slowly beginning to break apart. In a few more days, there would likely be almost nothing left except whatever was smeared across the moon.

  


The sight of a pharmacy with a broken window stopped the gloomy German as she trudged down the street. She gazed at her right arm for a moment, before coming to a decision. Asuka climbed through the broken window, after knocking out the shards along the bottom of the window sill. She dropped the chunk of concrete used for the task on the counter next to the cash register. Her flashlight beam swung around the darkened store, eventually stopping when the bandages were located. Plastic crumpled underfoot, and the flashlight revealed an empty packet, with a small bloodstain nearby.

  


_'Someone was in here recently, after Third Impact. Since it's just me and Ikari in the city, it must have been him. Was this before or after the beach, I wonder?'_ Asuka shone the beam on the floor leading back to the window, and sighed softly in relief. There were only a few tiny drop lets of blood, not nearly as much as Asuka  discovered she had been expecting. If the stains had been larger, it could have been a sign that the Third Child was badly injured.

  


Asuka shoved aside the mental image of a brown-haired boy laying in a dark room bleeding out thanks to a grievous and possibly even infected wound. There was precious little chance that she could locate Shinji soon enough if he was in trouble. Practically the entire city was destroyed, and Asuka had heard the distant rumble of a collapsing building earlier in the day. The dust cloud had hung in the sky for a long time, with little to no breeze to disperse it. Shinji might have been in there, or nearby. He might even have been in the mall, covertly watching Asuka as she tried on her new outfit.

  


_That_ thought was quickly shoved away. Despite all the insults Asuka had flung at Shinji, he was most definitely not a pervert. At least not intentionally.

  


There were simply too many horrible possibilities to consider, so all she could do was hope that Stupid Shinji wasn't... well... being stupid. That he was safe. Asuka did not want to consider that she might be the only person left in the world. It was a thought too painful to consider, that she would eventually perish alone, and humanity would die with her.

  


Turning back to the task that had brought her in here, Asuka shoved a few bandages into her bag, as well as some sterilising wipes. As soon as she returned to her temporary shelter, she was going to check her injured arm, and replace the bandages. They had been on her arm for at least four days by this point, and despite the absence of red stains, Asuka knew she would have to take them off soon inspect the damage to the limb , and possibly even apply fresh bandages . It was not a task Asuka was looking forward to, but it was something that  c ould not be delayed any longer.

  


A quick look around the rest of the pharmacy revealed nothing else of interest, besides a small selection of candy bars. Asuka immediately ripped one open and started eating. As she munched the bar and adjusted one of the twisted straps of her backpack, she heard the sound of crunching glass nearby. The flashlight practically shot back into her hand, the beam levelled at the window she had used to enter.

  


A thin figure was frozen in the middle of stepping into the pharmacy, one leg hovering above the sill. The familiar brown hair was even more dishevelled now, and the once-white shirt was barely hanging on the boy's shoulders, still unbuttoned. Asuka's stare went from the clearly visible ribs almost sticking out through the skin down to the leg inside the store, where an off-white bandage peeked out through badly ripped trousers.

  


Asuka took a hesitant step closer, but stopped at a small gasp from the boy as he backed out of the window. His cobalt eyes were wide and bloodshot, and the hand not gripping the side of the window sill was clenching and unclenching rapidly.  She licked her lips, surprised at how dry her mouth was all of a sudden. Here was the person she had just been worrying about, and her mind was drawing a blank on what to say. 

  


Shinji looked like a deer caught in her flashlight beam, ready to spring away at a moment's notice. Asuka lowered the light, so it wasn't shining directly into his face, opened her mouth, and said the only word that could come to mind.

  


“Shinji...”

  


The next few moments were a blur of motion. The boy backed away from the pharmacy, before turning and sprinting up the street. Asuka sprang into action, clumsily dumping both flashlight and backpack as she ran towards the window, but tripped on the sill as she tried to vault through it. The pavement rose up to meet her, and her hastily raised arms managed to absorb most of the fall. Asuka's head bounced off of the pavement as she tumbled, stopping against a streetlight.

  


The dazed girl could do nothing but lay there for a few moments, as she tried to shake off the dizziness. Finally she managed to make it to her feet, cradling her right arm as pain once again ran through it. Something rattled on the ground as she absently kicked it, and Asuka looked down to see that one of her A-10 connectors had been knocked loose. Her right arm reached down to pick it up, but it was now too sore to reach up and reattach the device. A scrabbling sound interrupted her attempts. Twenty meters away, the panicked boy had tripped over as well, and was now struggling to his feet.

  


Anger rose within the girl as Asuka once again saw Shinji trying to run away from her. Her knees were now aching from their sudden impact on the ground, and the best she could manage was a fast limp.

  


“ _Gott verdammt Ikari! Komm zurück du verdammte Schwächling!”_ Asuka forced herself to stop screaming. Not only was she hurling abuse at the poor boy, she was doing it in her native tongue, making her sound even more volatile. “Get back here, Third!”

  


But the sound of irate German cursing had already taken its toll. Shinji tripped over again as he tried to backpedal away. A small red object collided with his head, thrown by Asuka, who immediately clutched at her right arm again and hissed in agony from the exertion. Dirty hands blindly groped for the thrown item, and the boy finally managed to climb to his feet and escape the suddenly remorseful redhead, who could now do nothing but lean against a wall and once more watch her fellow pilot flee into the city.

  


“ _Scheiße_ ,” Asuka muttered, her rage dissipating as rapidly as it had erupted. “Me and my attitude ruined everything again...”

  


That night, Asuka sat in her sleeping bag with her arms around her knees, and stared out of the service station window for most of the night, struggling to keep her eyes open. Her single remaining A-10 connector now felt uncomfortable on her head without its twin, and it was set aside. The bandages had been stowed away in the bathroom, as she was too distracted by the day's events to worry about her arm, which still ached several hours after the incident. The fire had gone out an hour ago, but the sleeping bag combined with her new clothes were sufficient to ward off the chill. It was only when the grey of false dawn appeared in the sky that Asuka finally nodded off to sleep.

  


She dreamed of a volcano, and a giant purple arm saving her from certain death. Both pilots exited their entry plugs, and Asuka walked over to the purple robot's pilot and said two words. He smiled happily, and her own face mirrored that of the brown-haired boy in his blue and white plugsuit.

  


* * *

  


On a beach by a red sea, the dawn slowly crawled over the form of a figure on all fours, coughing out the foul-tasting water that had nearly drowned them. Their body spent after the swim to solid ground, they collapsed on the sand and gazed up at the slowly brightening sky as their air fluttered softly in the morning breeze. After several minutes, the woman groggily sat up and raised a hand to her temple, softly rubbing it. In front of her, several grey statues were slowly sinking into the ocean, the water now almost covering the stumps of their necks. Behind them, the sight of the giant rotted white face caused an eyebrow on the woman's face to raise in confusion.

  


“Well,” Major Misato Katsuragi, head of NERV's Tactical Operations branch, lamely remarked. “...That just happened.”


	4. Chapter 4

“ _This isn't where you belong, Katsuragi.”_

“ _What do you mean? My place is right here with you, Kaji.”_

“ _But I'm not actually here with you. I'm not real. I'm just the Kaji in your mind.”_

_Desperate arms snaked around Kaji's body and held him tightly. Misato sighed into his chest._

“ _You're real enough for me...”_

_Kaji_ _gently kissed her forehead._

“ _Do you really want to spend an eternity living in a lie? And what about the_ _kids_ _? You're practically a mother to Shinji, after all. He and Asuka need you too much for you to stay here.”_

_There was a long pause as Misato struggled with what she **wanted** to do, and what she **should** do._

“ _Kaji... If I leave, what about you? Will you return as well?”_

“ _I'm sorry, I can't answer that. I'm not real, after all.”_

“ _Please! I don't care if you're not real! Promise me you'll come back! Give me something to hope for!”_

_There was a low, deep sigh. “...Alright Katsuragi, how about this? You leave this place, and look after Asuka and Shinji for me. They'll need your love and guidance, especially when the rest of humanity follows. And if- **when** I leave this place and find you... I'll say the words I wasn't able to say eight years ago.”_

“ _You already promised that.”_

“ _And now I'm promising it again.”_

“ _But you died! You promised me and then you went and did something stupid and you **died!”**_

“ _Yep. What's the worst that could happen to me now? I can't exactly die again.” Kaji chuckled softly._

_A small sob escaped Misato's mouth, before she looked up at him, and smashed their lips together. Arms wrapped around each other, and the couple held the kiss as long as possible, before spots started to dance in front of their eyes as their lungs cried for oxygen._

“ _There. If I never see you again, if you break your promise again and don't come back, at least we left each other on a high note this time.”_

“ _That's my girl. Keep your head up.”_

“ _Goodbye, Ryoji Kaji...”_

“ _Farewell, Misato Katsuragi...”_

* * *

Misato lay on the beach, one arm thrown across her face shading her eyes from the morning sun. Her frantic swim to shore had been nearly half an hour ago, but she was still rather tired. Waking up from a strange and wonderful dream involving a loved one , a hundred meters out from shore , and struggling to reach dry land with lungs full of water and the strong taste of blood in her mouth had taxed the woman.

_'Well that's the first part done, Kaji. I went back,'_ she thought to herself with a small smirk on her face.  _'Now I just need to go and find the kids.'_

Sitting up once more with a loud groan as her tired muscles protested, Misato took another look around the beach she had washed up on. The sea was still red, and a giant vacant eye still stared blankly at her. As she got to her feet, she kicked something half-buried in the sand. Crouching down, Misato dug up a familiar-looking cigarette lighter. The same one she had used on the few occasions that had called for a smoke.

“How the _hell_ did this get here?” Misato asked herself with a confused expression on her face. As far as she could remember, she had never been to this place... wherever it was. A quick glance around showed that the beach was near Tokyo-3... or rather the remains of said city.

The lighter almost dropped through her fingers, as Misato could not help but stare at the devastation wrought by the JSSDF in a single attack. The N2 mine had practically vaporised everything at ground zero, ripping a hole straight through nearly two dozen layers of armour as if they didn't exist. Most of the fortress city was rubble ; not a single building had been left unscathed.  Misato quietly thanked whatever god s still existed that they had evacuated the majority of the city before SEELE launched their strike.

A glint of light drew her attention to a strange sight only a few feet away. Several wooden T-shaped objects were lined up in a row behind where she had just been resting. What was more surprising was the silver cross hanging from one of them. The same trinket that was normally worn around her neck, that she had pressed into Shinji's hands moments before shoving him into the elevator going up to the Evangelion cages. A shudder went up the woman's spine as she remembered the final moments before her death.

Bleeding from a bullet wound, she had pressed her silver cross into Shinji's hands. Then she had _kissed_ him. That kiss... and that awful, _disgusting_ promise she had made to Shinji to try and stir _something_ in him just to try to get him into his Evangelion before the JSSDF caught them. It brought a sick sensation to Misato's stomach. She still vividly remembered the shocked look on the boy's face as he stumbled backwards into the elevator just before the door slammed shut. Her own body had then collapsed moments before explosions rocked the corridor, just as the vision of a ghostly blue-haired girl appeared, reaching out to the dying woman.

Suddenly, she had found herself in a bedroom, curled up in bed with Kaji. They were  apparently back in the time  during college when the two of them  had  skipped class for a week. Time passed, but Misato cared only about the man holding her in his arms. He  had  eventually spoke to Misato, telling her that she was living in a fantasy world, and convinced her that she should leave the dream and return to reality. And now she was on a beach surrounded by a red ocean.

Misato tucked the lighter into a pocket before kneeling down in front of the cross, and noticed her own name scratched into the wood. The others bore familiar names. Kaji, Rei and Asuka, some of their classmates, as well as the Fifth Child, Kaworu Nagisa. It was no impossible task to determine who had built this memorial. Shinji ... that poor young boy, had obviously survived Third Impact, but Misato's heart sank as she stared at the cross bearing Asuka's name.

The  Second Child had apparently not returned. Misato had assumed that Asuka would return at the same time as Shinji, if not sooner. She could only imagine the pain in Shinji's heart as he sat on this beach waiting for people to return, but giving up and creating this meagre graveyard. Misato slowly got back to her feet, tears in her eyes, and placed the silver cross back around her neck.

_'How long has it been?'_ pondered Misato. Time had clearly passed while she had been in that ocean. Aside from the long-cold remains of a small fire and a couple of snacks half-buried in the sand, there were no other signs of life on the beach. It looked as though Shinji had waited here for others to return, but had given up hope and made the memorial before leaving. Wind and rain had eroded any possible footprints that could have given Misato a direction to begin a search for the boy. With no other option, she decided to head home to her apartment -if it even remained intact- and start from there.

Misato set off into what remained of Tokyo-3, hoping that Shinji had had the same idea, and praying fervently he was still alive.

Behind her, completely unnoticed, the grey statues finally sank beneath the surface of the blood-red ocean.

* * *

Asuka glowered  suspiciously  at herself in the bathroom mirror, as if daring the reflection to repeat yesterday's  ghoulish performance. After several minutes passed with no sign of blood, she sighed and turned her attention to her right arm. The bandages would come off, and Asuka would finally examine the damage she had received in her last and greatest battle. The previous day when she had removed the sweaty and dirt-stained red plugsuit, Asuka had only been slightly surprised that her legs and torso bore no scars from the harpies or their lances.

While it had felt like she was being eaten alive, there  were no tears in her plugsuit, apart from the arm after her... resurrection. It was as if the entire fight had merely been a terribly realistic dream. On the other hand, the pain and stiffness in her arm over the past few days was quite real, and the bandages replacing the missing right plugsuit sleeve certainly proved that Asuka had not been imagining things when she saw her arm bisected.

Breathing slowly, the girl closed her eyes and began unravelling the white cloth, starting at her shoulder. Asuka did not want to look until her arm was completely uncovered. It took several long and fumbling minutes, but finally Asuka's left hand stretched out and dropped the bandage on the bathroom floor. Still with her eyes closed, she slowly raised her right arm in front of her face, as if performing a ritual. She slowly breathed deeply in and out one more time, before opening her eyes. They immediately went as round as saucers.

Asuka stumbled through the store and out into the bright mid-morning sun, and stared at her arm again. She was shocked to discover that there was not a single trace of a scar on her arm. The skin was perfectly smooth, as if the split arm had merely been an illusion. Running a finger along her forearm, she did not even feel a bump of raised skin.

_'What the hell is going on here?!'_ she thought to herself.  _'There's no scar but my arm is constantly hurting.'_ Asuka let out a long sigh and dropped  the offending arm to her side. It was going to be another mystery to add to the pile, and for the time being she would have to take it easy. No more falling over, or tantrums like throwing her possessions at people.

The empty interface band that normally secured the A-10 connectors was still on Asuka's head, serving to keep her hair somewhat tidy. It was now useless for its intended purpose, as both connectors were needed for piloting. Her Evangelion was now likely nothing but a pile of rusted metal and decaying meat anyway, so the connectors would still be pointless as anything besides a fashion accessory. Shinji had run off with the one she had thrown, like a raccoon stealing from a garbage can.

Asuka almost smiled as the image of a small furry animal wearing a white shirt and a hopeless expression on its face filled her mind.

With a sigh she banished the image from her mind, before turning around and heading back inside the service station. Several bottles of water and some snacks were loaded into the backpack she had acquired from the camping store. The day looked like it would be relatively clear, and Asuka wanted to start searching for any sign of Shinji. There was far too many questions going through  her head to sit around doing nothing.

It was time to hunt down the Third Child and get some answers out of him.

* * *

After what she could only presume was several hours, judging by the position of the sun now directly above her, Misato stopped walking and rested for a moment against a partially destroyed streetlight. Third Impact had done nothing for her atrocious sense of direction, and Misato was now as hopelessly lost as she had been on the first day she had brought Shinji into NERV headquarters. Any possible landmarks she could use to navigate by were smashed, and the shop signs weren't much help either. Misato was starting to wonder if she was simply going in circles at this point.

“Boy,” she moaned as she started walking again. “What I wouldn't give right now for Rits to pop up and yell at me for getting lost again.”

Misato  and  Ritsuko  had been friends much longer than co-workers, but often found themselves at odds with each other at NERV. Misato did not know if she could bring herself to forgive Ritsuko for what she had done in regards to the First Child.

The last news Misato had heard of the doctor before her own death had been that she was preparing the MAGI for the self-destruct sequence as the final resort against SEELE. Commander Ikari and Rei Ayanami had also disappeared around the same time, and Misato believed she had a good idea where the two of them had gone. Terminal Dogma, the holding pen of the Second Angel and mother of humanity, Lilith.

From what she had managed to hack out of the MAGI, it was clear that both Commander Ikari and SEELE had been racing to initiate Third Impact on their own terms. Misato idly wondered who had actually won that race, before deciding that it didn't matter. They were both equally at fault for this catastrophe, and  she wished a hellish fate on them all for their part in attempting to eradicate humanity.

And destroying her surrogate family.

If- no, _when_ the rest of humanity returned from the red sea, Misato had discovered enough information on the true purpose of NERV and SEELE to damn any of the conspirators... if they showed their faces. It was highly unlikely they would, considering that Third Impact was what they had been working towards for far too long. Hopefully it would at least serve to protect the other people NERV employed, who would have had no idea what NERV's true purpose was.

Her foot caught on a piece of rubble, and Misato was rudely brought out of her musing as she nearly lost her balance. Tokyo-3 still looked unfamiliar to her, and she was starting to get hungry. An open door ahead of her drew her into a building, which turned out to be a small coffee shop. The pies and pastries on display under the register had all gone stale, and it only took a single bite of a doughnut to convince her to abandon that idea. She headed into the kitchen, hoping to find perhaps something sealed in a fridge, and was delighted to uncover a container full of biscotti.

Seeing as the furniture that would normally be outside the shop had been blown away -she saw one chair stuck in a window across the street- Misato dragged a chair outside to enjoy the cool breeze. The dryness of the biscotti only served to make her feel thirsty, but it took the edge off her hunger. Unfortunately for her, there was no electricity to brew coffee, so she had to make do with plain water. She eventually closed the lid on the container after devouring nearly half of  its contents .

After relaxing for about half an hour, the distant sound of shattering glass reached Misato's ears. She frowned as she got up and turned in the direction the noise came from, instinctively reaching for her holster only to find it empty. The Major cursed quietly as she slowly made her way towards the disturbance. There was still no sign of any other humans in the city, but  that didn't mean that there weren't any. Perhaps some looters had returned first and decided to make the most of the situation.

There was more noise as Misato drew closer, coming from a building directly ahead of her with two smashed windows. She ducked into a nearby alleyway and peeked around the corner, deciding to wait and see who was there before barging in.

Misato heard what sounded like a shelf being tipped over, accompanied by the muttering of a female. She raised an eyebrow at how young the person sounded as she stomped around and complained indecipherably to herself. Misato revised her initial theory that this was a mere looter. It sounded more like a returnee trying to... wait... was the girl speaking _German?_

“Is that Asuka?” Misato softly whispered to herself. “She's... alive after all?”

* * *

Inside the pharmacy, an annoyed girl stared at the shelf she had just tipped over in frustration. Asuka had returned to the spot she had last seen Shinji after wandering the city for half the day. She was hoping to catch him here, thinking that it was where he had been hiding ever since leaving her at the service station. He _had_ been caught climbing through the window like he owned the place, and it was possibly only the fact that Asuka had been inside that scared him away. A small part of her mind tried to make its view known, that there was no guarantee that Shinji was even in the city any more after yesterday's incident. The boy could be half-way to Tokyo-2 by now, thanks to Asuka putting the fear of God into him.

Or rather, fear of an angry German.

All day, Asuka kept repeating to herself what she'd do once the Third Child was found, to try and stop herself snapping and screaming as soon as she saw him again. The best plan she had come up with to avoid another escape was to locate Shinji, sneak up behind him and knock him out, then tie him to a chair so he couldn't run away yet again. Even after half a day, the plan sounded silly to Asuka, but  Shinji simply had too many answers for her to let him get away again.

The pharmacy itself held no clues to  his location. The only sign he had ever been in there was the blood on the floor. Asuka had spent the last hour searching the entire building, even the staff bathroom, only to come up with nothing. It was clear now that he had simply taken supplies from here and gone back to whatever hole he was hiding in, and she was now cursing at how much time she had wasted.

Asuka stepped outside and looked to the sky. It was now past midday, and some grey clouds could be spotted in the distance. They didn't look bad enough to be bringing any rain, but Asuka had yet to find an umbrella during her time wandering around the city.

The sound of running feet drew her attention, and before her mind could fully process the shocking sight in front of her, Asuka's mouth was already open and yelling.

“Shinji y- oof!” The wind was knocked out of her as her vision was filled by a crying purple haired woman who wrapped her arms around the girl and lifted her into a bear hug.

“Oh my god, Asuka! I thought you were dead!” Misato choked out amidst tears of joy. She had been feeling depressed ever since leaving the beach, and the sight of her practically surrogate daughter alive and well was almost too much for her. She sank down onto her knees, lowering Asuka to the ground and loosening her grip as she cried into the redhead's shoulder. 

“I'm... I'm too tough to kill, M-Misato,” Asuka finally stammered out. She was returning the hug just as fiercely and fighting back tears of her own. The promise she had made to herself so very long ago to never cry again was all that prevented her from bawling at the sight of the woman. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were dead as well.”

“That's... a damn good question, Asuka,” Misato replied as she got herself under control and released Asuka, sitting back on her haunches. “I'm not exactly sure either. One minute I'm dying from a gunshot wound inside NERV, the next I was... um... hanging out with Kaji for ages in some sort of imaginary world. He told me that nothing was real and that I had to leave. Next thing I know I'm choking on bloody water and desperately swimming to shore. I ended up near those grave markers Shinji must have made.”

Asuka's face darkened, her good mood vanishing at the mention of the Third Child. Misato tilted her head in uncertainty as she saw this.

“What's the matter? Did something happen to Shinji? Is he... dead?”

“No, Misato, The idiot isn't dead,” Asuka spat.

“Oh, gods, that's a relief, I-”

“But I can't even _find_ him!” Asuka crossed her arms and turned her back on Misato. “Every time I've spotted him since I woke up on the beach he runs away from me, the damned coward!”

Misato got back to her feet and raised an eyebrow. “Asuka, did you hurt him again?” she asked crossly as she planted her hands on her hips.

Asuka whirled back around and threw her arms out. “ _No!”_ she screamed. “I've done nothing but try to talk to him and all he does is flee like I'm an Angel or something!” She started rubbing her right arm, and exhaled as the anger dissipated. “But... when you consider that all I ever did was harass him...”

Misato watched as her charge's shoulders slumped, knowing very well the friction between the two pilots. She had lost count of the number of times she had to step in and save Shinji from one of Asuka's shouting fits. They usually resulted in Asuka stomping off to her room, and Shinji laying on his bed for hours listening to his SDAT. Misato placed one hand on the girl's right shoulder -she noticed the twitch as she touched her but didn't think anything of it- and used her other hand to pull Asuka's chin up to look her in the eyes.

“Asuka, are you _sure_ you didn't do anything to him, intentional or not?” she asked. It was not uncommon for the Second Child to say or do something that upset Shinji without her noticing, such as disparaging Rei while Shinji was in the next room. Misato knew that Shinji felt highly protective of Rei, regardless of her reserved nature. His attempts to defend the First Child usually resulted in Asuka blowing up at him, and ended with both of them hiding in their rooms.

“ _Yes,_ Misato.” Asuka wearily replied. “I'm pretty sure I would know if I had called him a _schweinhund_ or something.”  
  
Misato sighed and rubbed her forehead. She could see in Asuka's eyes that she was telling the truth, but why was Shinji so afraid of her now? He had never actively avoided Asuka, even when she was physically abusing him. The most he ever did was lock the door to his room, which would only last until Asuka started banging on the door and demanding he get up to make dinner.

The two of them looked up at the sky as a low growl of thunder sounded in the distance. Grey clouds were starting to pass overhead. They both swore under their breath at the prospect of getting caught in the rain. Asuka started walking down the street, waving at Misato to follow her.

“Come on,” she said. “No point getting rained on while we're catching up. We'll go back to my place.”

Misato snorted as she walked after the redhead. “ _Your_ place? Living in someone else's house now? Are you too good for my apartment or something?”

The redhead dismissively waved a hand in the air. “No, I just don't have a good idea of where we _are_ yet. I've been staying in a gas station the idiot left me at before one of his disappearing acts. I can at least find my way back there, and it'll be easier than trying to find your apartment with rain this close.”

“I suppose that makes sense, but... what was that about Shinji? He left you there?” asked Misato as she caught up to Asuka.

There was no reply from the girl. Misato almost repeated the question before Asuka spoke up, explaining how Shinji had suddenly run away from her when she had woken up on the beach, only to return and carry her to shelter just before a storm hit. “I was still half asleep at the time, and I thought he was Kaji taking me home. Heh, moron tried to sound like him too. That's what made me wake up.”

Misato let out a small snicker at the thought of a deep-voiced Shinji. They walked in silence for a few minutes. Misato heard Asuka mutter something under her breath, but only caught “...needed him...” She placed an arm on the girl's shoulder, once again noticing Asuka twitch at the sudden contact.

“What was that about needing him, Asuka?” she innocently asked. The  fiery glare she received from the redhead made her stop in her tracks.

“I said 'where was that idiot when I needed him before?!'” The scream of rage made Misato back away from Asuka. “The bastard never showed up and I fucking _died_ because of him! I waited for him to come help me! I put aside my pride for one freaking moment and begged for his assistance, but he didn't arrive until it was too damn late! I got torn apart by those SEELE monsters! They _ate_ me, Misato! They _ate me alive!”_

The tirade made Misato freeze in horror while Asuka stormed off down the street. After a few seconds she unfroze and ran after the angry girl. “That... that makes no sense Asuka!” she exclaimed. “I put Shinji on the elevator to the cages while you were still killing the Mass-Production Evas!”

“Well he obviously chickened out or something,” Asuka sneered. “Don't you remember when I'd killed all those Evas, and then they  _ got back up?! _ ” The sound of Misato's footsteps stopped, and Asuka turned to look at her. She saw Misato leaning against a wall with a hand covering her eyes.

“No... I don't remember that,” Misato murmured. “The JSSDF attacked us and I got hit, but I managed to get Shinji to the elevator before I bled to death...” She decided not to mention  _ that kiss  _ and  _ that promise _ . It would do nothing but disgust anyone who heard it.

“...Oh,” was all Asuka could reply with. “Um... sorry Misato, I didn't know.”

Misato waved a hand in dismissal as she started walking again. “Don't worry about it, Asuka. You had more important things to worry about. But what happened to Shinji? He should have been out there helping you. There was nothing wrong with the elevator, as far as I know.”

“If I knew why he didn't show up, I wouldn't be this freaking _angry_ at him,” Asuka replied. “All I can think of was that he was too afraid to help.”

Another distant roll of thunder sounded.  Misato  and  Asuka looked at each other and started running. Despite Misato not having fully recovered from her return, she was easily able to keep up with Asuka, and they made it to the service station just as the first drops of rain started to fall.

* * *

The rain poured down outside. Third Impact had done the climate no favours, just like Second Impact, and it appeared as if Tokyo-3 was in for a long rainstorm. Inside the service station, Misato and Asuka sat around a small fire and ate their dinner, which consisted of carefully heated tins of baked beans. The smoke was starting to leave a stain on the ceiling by this point, but the air vent directly above the fire carried the worst of it away so the interior wasn't hazardous.

While they ate, the two  of them were telling each other what they experienced, and attempting to fill gaps in their memories. Asuka spoke of the end of her fight and what happened after she woke up on the beach, and Misato related her efforts to locate Shinji and get him to Unit-01 despite his lack of co-operation.

“When I found him, the JSSDF had reached him first,” Misato said as she stared into the flickering fire. “One of them was holding a gun to his head, but Shinji... I can't believe I'm saying this... I think he looked  _ grateful _ that he was about to die.”

“Grateful?!” Asuka  echoed with a disbelieving look.

“I didn't exactly have time to analyse him, Asuka, so I can't be sure. I ambushed the squad and killed them,  but Shinji... he looked so upset that I'd saved him.”

Asuka was surprised at Shinji's attitude, but couldn't work out why he was waiting to die. “What the hell happened while I was... gone?” she asked.

Misato sighed as she recalled the days before Third Impact. “After you ran away, Shinji spent every waking moment trying to find you. He barely spoke to me any longer, and he would sometimes stay out until midnight. Every night he would come home utterly tired and even more despondent than the day before.” She smiled a little. “When you were eventually discovered, he was almost ecstatic, but then he found out you were in a coma. That seemed to break something inside him, and he fell even deeper into depression. It took the arrival of the Fifth Child, Kaworu Nagisa, to get any real response out of him, and Shinji latched onto him like a drowning person reaching for a life preserver.”

“Speaking of which, who the hell was this Fifth Child person?” Asuka asked. “I remember seeing that name on one of the grave markers, but I don't remember ever hearing of him.”

“He was... well... your replacement, since you were out of action,” sighed Misato. “I wish those SEELE bastards had kept him though.”

“What made you say that? He didn't break something did he? Was he worse than Shinji at piloting?”

Misato frowned slightly at Asuka's tone, before returning her gaze to the fire. “I guess you could say he broke something. Turns out Kaworu Nagisa was the Seventeenth Angel. He-”

“What the fuck?! SEELE sent us an  _ Angel?!”  _ Asuka interrupted angrily. “And just who the hell is SEELE, anyway?”

“SEELE is the true name of the Instrumentality Committee. They were the people officially in charge of our funding in the war against the Angels, and then they sent us one themselves. An angel disguised as a teenage boy. I wish I could have realised what was wrong when he synced so perfectly on his first try.”

Misato tactfully left out the detail of Kaworu being tested in Unit-02. Asuka was fiercely protective of her Evangelion, and hated the thought of anyone else even being near the entry plug. “Shinji quickly became friends with him. The two of them spent all their time around each other. I don't know exactly what happened, but I saw Shinji actually start to cheer up a bit. Since nearly everyone had moved away from Tokyo-3 for their own safety, he didn't even have those friends of yours at school to be with.”

Asuka folded her arms. “Hmph, so he made a new friend that turned out to be an Angel. I suppose he tried to to kill Shinji?”  
  


Misato lay back on a blanket and stared up at the ceiling. Several long seconds passed before she continued. “No, it was something much worse. Kaworu stole your Eva. He somehow activated it without even being in the entry plug, and took it down to Terminal Dogma. Shinji was forced to subdue Unit-02 before he could chase after him. A powerful AT-Field blocked our view of what happened, unfortunately, but Shinji managed to kill Kaworu. When he got out of Unit-01... he looked almost dead on his feet. He saved the world, but had to kill his only friend to do it.”

They quietly finished their meal as Asuka digested both the food and the conversation. “Did this Angel do something to make Shinji like him?” she asked. “Did this Kaworu freak mess with his head like... like what happened to me?” Her voice dropped as the memory of the Fifteenth Angel's attack surfaced in both their minds.

“No, nothing like that.  There were no signs of mental contamination in Shinji, and Unit-01 only received minor damage from Unit-02. I don't think there was even a real fight between Shinji and Nagisa. The only sign of anything happening was a bloodstain on its hand from where Shinji apparently crushed his body. I don't think Kaworu evened bothered to resist.”

“No struggle, huh? Did the Angel  _ want _ to die or something?”

Misato shrugged. “That's the only thing we could think of, Asuka. Shinji refused to tell us what happened, and there wasn't enough time to find out anyway. The JSSDF attacked pretty much the next day because SEELE apparently told them a lie about us wanting to start Third Impact, and the army went in to 'save the world'.”

“Yeah, I woke up in the middle of that mess. I trashed the JSSDF, then the MP Evas showed up. I beat them, then...” Asuka stroked her right arm again. “...then they got up and killed me...”

Misato finally decided to speak up about Asuka's arm. The girl had been almost constantly rubbing it as they sat around the fire. “Did you hurt yourself or something?” she asked, pointing at Asuka's arm.

“I suppose you could say that,” Asuka looked through the fire at Misato. “It's one of the last things I remember before I... died. You know how I told you about what happened after th ose bastards got up?” Misato nodded. “I don't know how high my sync ratio was, but it must have been well over a hundred percent. That first spear, I could feel it in my own face. It was the worst pain I'd ever felt while piloting. My own eye was  _ gone _ . I could feel my blood pouring through my fingers as I held them over the socket.” The girl started shivering, despite the warmth of the fire. “When the second spear pierced my Eva's arm, I watched as my own arm mirrored it. That's pretty much the last thing I remember clearly before waking up on the beach.”

One of the biggest problems with Evangelion synchronisation was that as the pilot's sync ratio increased, their control over the gigantic machines became more precise, but they felt the pain of any damage that the Evangelion received. At high enough levels, the pilot's body would receive a blow as if the injury had happened directly to them.

Misato knew she would never have been able to pilot an Evangelion. That didn't stop her from wishing she had been in  Asuka's position purely so that she wouldn't have had to suffer like she did. “I see,”  she finally replied. “Is that the reason you keep stroking that arm? The memory of the injury?”

“Sort of. I already mentioned that I awoke with the bandages over the injuries I sustained in that fight. This morning I took them off my arm, and... well... you can see that nothing's wrong with it.” Asuka rolled up the sleeve and showed Misato the unmarred arm. “But for some reason whenever I exert it too much, like throwing something, it starts aching terribly.”

“Damn. It's too bad Rits isn't here, she'd probably be able to tell you what's wrong with it.”

They both sat in silence for several minutes. Asuka finally spoke up, seeming to struggle to find the words. “M-Misato... you might think this sounds crazy but... my mother was in Unit-02. I woke up while the JSSDF were bombing the lake, and... my mother was there. She was with me, helping me fight up until the lance went through my Eva's face. Then... she... left me again...”

The lack of response from Misato at this statement drew Asuka's attention to  her guardian . Misato was staring at nothing, arms hugging her knees to her chest with a pensive expression on her face

“Misato? Do you know something?” The redhead grew angry. “Were you keeping the fact that my mother was in Unit-02 from me?!”

As if she had been electrocuted, Misato jumped at the accusation. She turned her gaze to Asuka for a moment, before looking away again. “No, Asuka,” she finally replied with a sigh. “I wasn't _keeping_ it from you, I just found out too late. I was hacking into the MAGI just before the attack, and I found out everything NERV was keeping from us, like Commander Ikari and SEELE's true goal, and what was hidden in Terminal Dogma. I also discovered the truth behind the death of your mother as well as Shinji's.”

Asuka glared at Misato. “My mother _h_ _a_ _ng_ _ed_ _herself_ , Misato. I _know_ what happened.”

“Yes, but it's what happened _before_ that that led to her suicide. Do you remember what your mother was doing before she forgot who you were?”

“Well... no. Some experiment involving Unit-02. I was too young to remember specifics now.”

“Kyoko was performing a Contact Experiment. The details are all too science-y for me, but I assume it's something like an activation test. Something went wrong though, and Kyoko's soul was... split, I suppose. The body survived, but her mind was destroyed by the process,” Misato stared across the fire into Asuka's eyes. “ _That_ was why your mother no longer knew who you were, Asuka. And _that_ was why she killed herself.”

Asuka's vision shimmered as tears threatened to escape. As a young girl, she had been forced to watch her own mother start lavishing attention on  a  rag doll that she called Asuka, instead of her  actual daughter.  Asuka vividly remembered running down a hallway and opening a door, only to find her mother hanging from the ceiling, a partially decapitated doll swinging next to her. She shook her head and tried to force the memories and nightmares away. They would be dealt with later. A question sprang to the front of her mind.

“Wait, you mentioned Shinji's mother as well. Did the same thing happen to her?”

“Sort of. Yui Ikari was the first person to attempt a Contact Experiment with an Evangelion.” Misato shuddered. “I saw the recordings of the incident. There wasn't even a body left, just the suit she was wearing in the entry plug. She was fully absorbed into Unit-01's core, similar to how your mother's soul was partially integrated into Unit-02.”

The woman continued, voice distant and eyes unfocused. “It's only a miracle that Shinji doesn't seem to remember that day. He was only three or four years old then. Seeing his own mother die right in front of his eyes at such a young age... I wouldn't wish that on anybody.”

A gasp of surprise burst out of Asuka's mouth. “ _Mein Gott_...” Asuka whispered. She had 'merely' walked in on her mother after she had died. But Shinji had been forced to watch it happen. “Is that why Shinji is so...” She trailed off, unable to find the right word to describe the Third Child's behaviour.

Misato gave another shrug. “I'm no psychiatrist, Asuka, but that probably had something to do it. All he knows is that his mother died mysteriously. Oh, and if losing his mother wasn't bad enough, the day after the incident Gendo dropped his son off at a train station and left.” The major's face twisted into a scowl. “That bastard didn't even try to comfort him, he just _abandoned_ Shinji right after he lost his mother. In the ten years since, the only time they saw each other was at Yui's grave.”

The scowl turned into a small smile as Asuka flung several angry German curses at the Commander of NERV. She knew what most of them were, and Gendo Ikari certainly deserved them all and more. It took a few minutes for Asuka to finally run out of insults.

“That  bastard has a lot to answer for if he ever comes back,” Asuka finished as she ran out of breath.

Misato snorted in derision. “That's not likely to happen. Ikari's probably exactly where he wants to be now. His ultimate goal was to be reunited with his wife, and now that he's in that fantasy land, he won't want to return.”

“Fantasy land? You mean that place you found yourself in where you were 'hanging out' with Kaji?” Asuka's exaggerated finger quotes displayed that the redhead knew exactly what the two of them had likely been doing.

“Exactly,” Misato ignored the unspoken accusation. “Right now the entire world is... stuck in the sea, I guess you could say. Each of them in their own perfect little reality...”

“But _you_ came back. Will the rest of humanity return too?”

“Well the fact that you and I are here is proof that people can leave. Kaji... he told me that humanity could return.” Misato shrugged. “What's to stop everyone deciding to leave?”

“Hang on, I don't recall living in a perfect world ! All I can remember is an incredibly vague dream about... orange.” Asuka's dreams the last few nights had always returned to that vision. Orange everywhere she looked, and a sense of ultimate comfort.

“Sorry Asuka. I don't know what's different about you, but you're here now.” Misato chuckled. “Maybe your world wasn't worth staying in.”

“Great, a supposedly perfect fantasy world that I somehow hated. Just my luck.” Asuka rolled her eyes at the unfairness. She let out a loud yawn. “Well, it's late. I want to go out early tomorrow and start searching for the Third again, so let's get to sleep.”

Misato looked up at the clock on the wall, which showed that the time was nearly midnight. She started getting comfortable in the borrowed blankets. “Good idea. He's lost and alone out there,” she said as she also yawned, before pointing a determined finger at Asuka. “Look, I don't care what's happened between you two to scare off Shinji, but I want my boy back.”

Asuka almost retorted that she hadn't done anything, but she was too tired now to formulate a response. Instead she curled up in her sleeping back and zipped it up, trapping as much warmth as possible.

“Goodnight, Asuka.”

“G'night...”

Misato laid back on the floor. _'I will find him, Kaji,'_ she thought. _'And not even a Fourth Impact will stop me now.'_ If Asuka had still been looking, she would have noticed the steel in Misato's eyes and seen the same expression the Major had worn while fighting the Angels. The two of them quickly drifted off to sleep, both dreaming of the same young boy.


	5. Chapter 5

As grey pre-dawn light filled the sky, Misato was shaken out of her slumber. She instinctively grabbed at the person hovering above her, before her mind finally woke up as a familiar voice hissing in pain reminded her who the person was. She let go of Asuka's arm and sat up with a loud yawn as she tried to work out why the girl had such an odd expression on her face.

“Asuka, what's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost,” Misato sleepily said. She watched as the girl backed up and started fidgeting, apparently ignoring the ache in her arm.

“W-well I guess you could say that...” Asuka eventually stammered out. She was unable to sit still, now pacing up and down a nearby aisle. Misato could tell there was something big on her mind.

“So why did you wake me up? It's not even morning yet. I need my beauty sleep!”

Asuka stopped and rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry Misato, but I... I had to tell you this before I forgot.”

“Forgot what? Was it a nightmare?” Misato asked concernedly. She knew that Asuka sometimes had trouble sleeping, but she very rarely brought it up, as Asuka would always get evasive and angry.

“No, nothing like that,” Asuka replied. “I'm pretty sure it wasn't a dream at all. More like a... memory.”

“Must have been a pretty important memory for you to wake me up at whatever time you call this.”

“Oh please, I had to get up nearly this early for training back in Berlin.” Asuka took a deep breath and turned to face Misato. “Remember how last night we spoke about you and Kaji, and then how I couldn't remember much from my 'perfect world'?” Misato nodded. “Well I'm positive that it all just came back to me...”

* * *

Asuka awoke, and stared around at the orange fog surrounding her. The horrific injuries from moments before were suddenly gone, as was her plugsuit. In its place was the yellow sundress she adored. Ahead, an indistinct figure loomed, arms outstretched towards her. An oddly familiar voice reached her ears, sounding as if she were underwater.

“My darling...” The voice finally became more distinct.

“Mama...” Asuka's eyes widened in disbelief. There was no mistaking the German words she had just heard, or the voice that had just spoken.

“Asuka, my treasure...”

Asuka scrambled to her feet and charged through the orange haze surrounding her, colliding with the figure and tightly wrapping her arms around its waist. The woman held up strong against the impact and embraced the sobbing girl. They both sat there for what felt like an eternity, before Asuka finally sniffled and looked up into the same sapphire eyes she had inherited.

“Mama, is it really you...?”

“Yes dear, it's me.”

The tears almost started flowing again, but Asuka got herself under control once more. She relaxed her grip slightly on her mother, and looked around at the orange mist surrounding them. There were blurry shapes in the fog, and all Asuka could make out were vague silhouettes of people moving past the two females.

“Where are we?” she finally asked. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the strange world, Asuka could see that they were both standing in a ghostly plaza. The orange murkiness was too thick to recognise the area. Shadows would appear out of the fog and change their path to avoid the two redheads, but otherwise paid no attention to the mother and daughter.

“Instrumentality. Complementation. The end result of Third Impact. It is somewhere that you do not belong,” Kyoko replied.

“What kind of answer is that?” Asuka's head swivelled back to focus on Kyoko. “I'm here with you, Mama. This is where I belong!”

“And I would love nothing more than to spend every moment with you,” Kyoko replied as she idly smoothed out some of Asuka's hair. “But this place is a lie. You do not deserve a false existence.”

“What?! No! I don't _care_ if it's not real, I don't want to lose you again, Mama!”

A pair of delicate hands cupped Asuka's face for the first time in over a decade, and her mother's thumbs gently wiped away the brimming tears. “Asuka, you never lost me. I have always been with you.”

Asuka angrily pushed away from her mother and stepped back. “But... where were you when my mind was being destroyed by the Angel? Where were you when I was sitting in a bathtub _waiting to die_?!”

Kyoko put up her hands in a placating gesture. “I was there, Asuka, I've _always_ been there. But you were so tightly closed off that I couldn't reach you. I'm... _so_ sorry I couldn't protect you. Only at the very end was I able to finally break through the walls around your heart.” She tiredly rubbed her face with both hands. “But now is not a time to be stuck in the past. Neither of us can change what has already happened. All we can do now is work towards the future.”

She softly grasped Asuka's hand, and guided her through the fog to a set of benches. The shadows already there ignored them as they sat down in an empty spot. They appeared to be talking animatedly, but no sound came forth from their featureless faces.

“Asuka, if you stay here with me, you will have no future.” Kyoko indicated the shadows around them. “Every single human on Earth is in here with us. You _must_ go, or you will eventually lose yourself and become nothing more than an insignificant speck within this sea of souls.”

Asuka latched onto her mother's arm. “I don't _want_ to leave you! You're the only one who cares about me, Mama.”  
  
“Oh, Asuka, you know that's not true, my dear. There are other people who hold you in their heart.”

A disbelieving look painted itself on Asuka's face. “Really? Who could _possibly_ care about me like you do?”

A silhouette moving past them suddenly changed direction and walked up to them, solidifying as it approached. Indistinct grey flesh turned pink and healthy as its clothes gained their own colour. The purple-haired woman grinned cheekily at Asuka before lifting a beer can in salute.

“Misato?” The redhead snorted dismissively. “She was just my guardian. The only reason she paid attention to me was because I was a pilot.”

Kyoko frowned and crossed her arms. “Asuka, you know that's not true either. The reason she seemed distant was because her job was so demanding. What about back at NERV Berlin? Don't you remember the time you two spent together back then?”

Asuka did remember. Misato had been her temporary guardian before Kaji had come along. “Yeah, we got along like a house on fire,” she muttered with a sigh.

Kyoko laughed quietly. “Yes,” she replied. “Chaos. People screaming and running everywhere. You two caused so much mischief I'm amazed they let Misato stay with you that long.”

“Hey, that guy's coat was on fire when I got there!” Asuka was trying to stay angry, but the wonderful memories of her time with Misato in Germany simply wouldn't let her. There _had_ been a lot of fun with Misato as her guardian in Berlin. When she wasn't training, the two of them would relax on a couch and stuff themselves with snacks while watching awful television shows, or go out on shopping trips and try on clothes they had no intention of buying.

She threw up her hands in capitulation. “Alright alright, I'll admit that _someone_ cared about me as a person.”

“She isn't the only one either, Asuka.”

As they spoke, the purple-haired woman backed into the fog with a wave, and was lost within seconds amongst the crowd. A tall figure stepped towards them and gave the pair a sloppy smirk.

“Oh, Kaji!” Asuka said as her eyes lit up.

Kyoko's gentle smile turned into a frown at the sight of the NERV agent and Asuka's own expression slowly changed as she realised that her mother somehow knew everything she had done to try and get the man's attention.

But how _did_ she know? Was her mother sharing her memories? It certainly seemed that way as Asuka tried in vain to _not_ think about what had happened on the _Over the Rainbow_ between her and Kaji. But it was too late to stop that memory as it flashed in front of her eyes for a second.

“Well, the less said about _that_ , the better I think,” Kyoko remarked with a harrumph, confirming Asuka's suspicion. “Anyway, while it's true that he cares for you, I wasn't talking about him.”

Another silhouette stepped forward to take the agent's place. This one had brown hair held in pigtails, and wore a familiar school uniform and a hopeful expression.

“Alright, this one's obvious. Hikari and I _were_ friends I suppose. I just believed she liked me purely because I'm a pilot. You know, hitching her wagon to mine.” Asuka's face softened and she sighed. “But... no, that's really not Hikari at all. She liked just about everyone in the class, even those two stooges.”

The girl smiled and waved at Asuka, before turning and running back towards two shadows. The taller one waved lazily at Asuka while the second one appeared to be adjusting its glasses. The three of them vanished into the fog, and Asuka watched them leave with a sad smile on her face.

Another stepped forward. Unlike the other images, this figure was still hazy and indistinct even at close range. It took much longer to solidify to a point where the two women could discern any details. All that Asuka could make out was a familiar haircut and dark blue eyes that somehow pierced through the fog, but that was enough to identify this person. Despite the rest of his body still being shrouded, Asuka recognised the kicked-puppy look. Even here, the boy seemed unable to maintain eye contact with her.

“Are you kidding me? _Him_?!” Asuka exclaimed. “ _Shinji?!_ He doesn't care about me at all! I tried everything to get him to even look at me and nothing worked!”

Kyoko turned to her and said, “Did you ever stop to think about _why_ he appeared to ignore you?”

“Well gee, maybe because he hates me?” Asuka replied, as if the answer was plain to see. “Because he's a goddamn _coward_?”

“Watch your language, young lady.” Kyoko reprimanded.

“Sorry, Mama...” Asuka hung her head, ashamed.

“It wasn't because he hated you. Nor was he ignoring you. In fact, that poor boy's story is so similar to what happened to you and I that it shocks me...” Kyoko paused.

Asuka looked up at her. “What do you mean? How is the idiot similar to me?”

There was a long pause. “...Shinji's mother,” Kyoko eventually said. “Yui Ikari. She died in the same experiment I ran.”

“Huh? What experiment?”

“Ah, I suppose you were too young to fully remember.” Kyoko spoke at length, explaining the Contact Experiments and how she had attempted to succeed where Yui Ikari had seemingly failed. Only now did she come to understand that Yui's attempt was a complete success, and her own effort technically a partial success. Asuka could see the look of disgust on her mother's face as Kyoko looked back at what two separate individuals had done to their own children in the name of science and saving humanity.

Kyoko shook her head and looked back at Asuka, who remained staring at nothing while the older woman said, “Asuka, I am _so_ sorry for what I did to you. It wasn't my intention to be trapped inside Unit-02. At the time, all I wanted to do was prove I could accomplish something that someone else failed at, but that's a horrible excuse for leaving you like I did. Can you ever forgive me?"

The young girl glanced sidelong at Kyoko for a moment, before scooting closer and enveloping her in a hug. “I never hated you for leaving me, Mama,” she mumbled with her face buried in her mother's shoulder. “And I understand now, you never truly left. You were always watching over me while I was in Unit-02.”

Kyoko smiled softly and returned the embrace. They both sat there for a while, in a cocoon of warmth and love. “So you see, you and Shinji are more alike than you think,” she said, bringing the conversation back to the Third Child.

Asuka initially scoffed at the idea, but thought carefully about her own past as well as what she had just been told. Despite her initial belief that Shinji's position as an Eva pilot had come about due to blatant nepotism, she _had_ noticed the elder Ikari's lack of concern and even attention towards his own son. The negligence, and how hard Shinji seemed to try to get his father's approval, had often made Asuka remember how quickly her own father had turned his attention away from his daughter; the man instead devoting his time towards the female doctor that had been looking after his wife.

“I... guess you're right, Mama.” Asuka let go of her mother and leaned back on the bench, looking up at the murky orange sky. “The only time I really saw Papa after you died was on my birthday or at Christmas, if he even bothered to remember. He'd show up with that... that _bitch_ on his arm, shove a meagre gift into my hands and leave.”

“I know, Asuka,” Kyoko's voice turned icy as she shared Asuka's memories. Although the woman was understandably upset at how quickly her husband had found somebody else, while she was _still alive_ , she was clearly livid that he had completely neglected his own daughter as well. “But please don't hate that other woman too much. Your father was nothing but a womanising bastard, and she fell for his charms just as badly as I did.”

“Well... I _guess_ she's alright,” Asuka hesitantly conceded, then brightened slightly. Katharina Langley had at least made the effort to be civil towards her stepdaughter, and had even called her the previous year simply to catch up.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, Asuka had only pretended to dislike her stepmother out of loyalty to her real mother.  
  
“Still, if I ever find that asshole in here I'm going to give him such a thrashing,” her mother growled under her breath.

“Language, Mama.” Asuka looked up at her with a teasing smirk.

“Watch your tone with me, young lady,” Kyoko scowled, but there was no heat behind it. “This may be an imaginary place but I can still tan your hide.” The two redheads stared at each other, before they both started giggling. Eventually Asuka sobered up and gazed intently into the face of the shadow before them as if searching for something.

“Well, now I kinda understand why even a kiss didn't seem to do much to him,” she sighed as she turned back to her mother. Kyoko, to the girl's mild surprise, didn't seem fazed by that event as it passed before their mental eyes.

“In a better world, Asuka, that might have worked,” Kyoko remarked as the memory ended. Her eyes remained unfocused as she continued. “It could very well have been the point at which the two of you could start to heal together. All that was needed was a little... something else. Perhaps a kind word at an earlier point in time, or even something as simple as one of you holding the other that night.”

Kyoko's gaze shifted back to her daughter. “Well, as I said before, we can't change the past. I'm not even sure the power behind Third Impact could accomplish such a feat.”

Asuka gave a humourless laugh. “If Third Impact could do that, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be sitting in this strange place chatting to each other about time travel in the first place.”

Shinji's image had long since faded away into the background, but Asuka remained staring at where it had been standing, as if willing it to come back. Something about the boy they had just seen finally clicked in Asuka's mind.

“Why did he look so... hazy?” she asked curiously, waving a hand at where Shinji had been standing “All the others looked real, but he was still just a shadow.”

Once again, Kyoko did not speak for a while. “Shinji Ikari has already left this place,” she finally answered. “Or perhaps he was never in here. It's difficult for me to tell.”

“Huh, what's so special about him? Did he have a V.I.P. pass or something?”

Her mother thought for a moment. “...Shinji was a special case, I guess you could say.”

Asuka raised an eyebrow. If it weren't for the fact that only the two of them were truly present, she would swear that one of the silhouettes seemed to be whispering answers into her mother's ear. She motioned for Kyoko to continue.

“Shinji's reason for not being here with the rest of humanity isn't exactly... pleasant.” Kyoko slowly said as she hugged herself. Asuka's only response was to stare back at her mother and cross her arms. “Alright, I suppose you deserve to know. Shinji... Shinji was the one who initiated Third Impact...”

* * *

“ _WHAT?!”_

The shriek almost deafened Asuka. “Yeah Misato, that was pretty much my reaction too.” She removed her hands from her ears and sighed. “It's true, believe it or not. He was the one who destroyed the world and killed everybody.”

Misato's face seemed to be frozen in a look of pure shock and disbelief. She did not want to believe what the girl had just told her. It took a minute, but she eventually managed to force out a response. “The last time I saw Shinji, he... he was almost dead on his feet. I was literally dragging him through NERV. Are you sure we're talking about the same person? How could _my_ Shinji possibly commit _genocide?!_ ”

Asuka raised an eyebrow slightly a t how  Misato  phrased that second question but elected not to comment on it. “My mother said his mental state was  _ exactly _ what caused Third Impact to happen. She mentioned a lot of stuff about the Mass Production Evangelions, SEELE, Wondergirl, and the Angel in Terminal Dogma. They were all tied together in some bizarre ritual that... brought Lilith back to life or something.” Asuka's voice turned sarcastic. “And in her infinite wisdom, she handed the big red button for Third Impact to a person who was one step away from most likely blowing his own brains out.”

“Wow... I- I knew he took the death of that Kaworu boy really hard,” Misato stammered. “But surely that wouldn't make him want to... _kill_ everyone...”

“You're right, that alone wasn't enough,” The redhead twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she continued. “While my mother was rather... vague on some of the details, she said that this had been slowly building up inside Shinji for a long time. Possibly his entire life.”

As Asuka continued relaying the information her mother had given her, things started clicking together in Misato's head. Shinji had always seemed like a quiet and shy young man. She  _ had _ noticed  him withdrawing further into his shell as the Angel War progressed, but she had mistakenly believed that it was simply his personality, combined with the horrors of battle against monstrous beings hellbent on exterminating humanity.

To know that her surrogate son had been slowly getting crushed by so many traumatic events over the last year, without ever asking for help... it sent a shiver down the woman's spine. Being forced to kill a friend _might_ not have been enough on its own to send Shinji into a suicidal depression, but combined with everything else in his life? No wonder he hadn't cared about the soldier pointing a gun at him. He had simply been waiting for the death he couldn't bring about himself. Misato shook her head and focused back on what Asuka was saying.

“...knew more than she was telling me.”

“Huh? What was that last part?”

“I said, I'm positive my mother knew more than she was telling me,” Asuka repeated. “Mama had all this information on what had happened, despite being trapped in Unit-02 for ten years. I asked her how she knew so much, but she got evasive and said that the knowledge was just there in her brain somehow.”

“Hmm, maybe she managed to put things together as you two were discussing them,” Misato pondered. “She _was_ a scientist, one smart enough to work on the Evangelions.”

“No. I mean that it feels like Mama was withholding details from me.”

“Oh... Well...” Misato trailed off for a moment before shrugging “Sorry, I don't know what to say, since I wasn't there. Anyway, did Kyoko say what happened between Kaworu's death and the JSSDF attack? I remember seeing Shinji right after he killed Kaworu. He was incredibly depressed, no surprise, but he was still mentally... _there_. When I found him during the attack, it was like he barely noticed what was happening around him.”

Asuka shook her head. “That was one of the things she claimed not to know. Mama got _really_ shifty when I asked, and the subject quickly moved back to how I needed to return to reality.”

The two of them began to eat breakfast as the sun shone through the window, and Asuka continued her story.

* * *

“Look, Asuka. I know you have many questions,” Kyoko said. “But I simply don't have all the answers. Even if I did, there's no time to give them all to you. You _must_ leave before you lose yourself!”

“But... can't you at least come with me, Mama?” Asuka pleaded as she tightly hugged the woman's arm. “I don't want to lose you again!”

Kyoko gently broke Asuka's grip on her body, cupping  her daughter's hands in her own and staring into her eyes. “I don't even know if I would have a real body anymore. Unit-02 has housed my soul for ten years.  But i t doesn't matter if I can't leave this place, because I will always be with you Asuka.”

Asuka sniffled. “Promise, Mama? Will you always be with me?”

“Of course I will. You are Asuka Langley-Soryu. My daughter. Not even Third Impact can change that. And there's something else that will never change.” She bent down and gently kissed Asuka on her forehead. “I am so proud of you, Asuka, and I will always love you.”

The two of them slowly got back to their feet. Asuka wiped her eyes clear before staring into her mother's eyes. A single nod from Kyoko was returned, and Asuka spun on her heel and sprinted into the fog.

As she ran, she started to feel the pain of her mutilation return to her body. Looking down, Asuka noticed she was back in her plugsuit, with bandages around her right arm. Her left eye's vision dimmed and went black as the agony made itself known. Asuka ignored everything and continued running, even as her feet left the ground and the air thickened around her. The last thing she remembered before the pain shut her body down was the smell of blood.

* * *

Kyoko watched her daughter run off, and prayed silently for her safety. After several minutes, she spoke to the air. “So... how did I do?”

A young figure stepped out of the shadowy crowd behind her. Red eyes bored into the woman's back for several seconds before the person finally answered.

“Asuka Langley-Soryu has left. She is now beyond my sight. You have successfully done as I requested.”

“But will it work? Will she be able to help Shinji?” Kyoko slumped back onto the bench.

“I cannot answer that, Kyoko Zeppelin-Soryu,” the girl answered in a monotone voice. She walked around the bench and sat down next to Kyoko, staring at where Asuka had disappeared. “My connection with Shinji Ikari grows weaker as time passes. All I can clearly discern is that his mental state is degrading while he remains alone. He is becoming consumed by his guilt, his despair and grief.”

The girl looked down at her hands in her lap. “Humanity is not quite ready to return on their own, and so I was forced to make someone leave that can help him. Asuka Langley-Soryu was the most logical choice, given their history. That is why I insisted that your daughter leave as soon as possible, while I am still able to observe and attempt to lend aid from inside Instrumentality. All we can do now is wait and hope that your daughter can save Shinji Ikari from himself.”

“Ayanami-” Kyoko started to respond, before the girl interrupted her.

“My name is Lilith,” she said, a little anger breaking through the monotone. “Though I share her physical appearance, I am no longer Rei Ayanami.”

“Lilith, then,” Kyoko sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I... God, I'm starting to wish you hadn't dropped all that knowledge in my head _._ I don't know if I can simply forgive the boy for... for _that_ , regardless of what he's been through. Why did you make me withhold information from my own daughter? She needed to know everything that happened to Shinji if she's going to help him, even the bad stuff.”

Lilith nodded solemnly. “Yes, and she will find the answers, but she must hear them from Shinji Ikari. Telling her now would only damage whatever fragile link still remains between the two. It would also have most likely resulted in her refusing to leave. ”

  
Kyoko scoffed. “What, and you think Shinji confessing that he used Asuka as wanking material will somehow help them?”

The mother of humanity either didn't notice the colourful language, or didn't care. “Your daughter knows that Shinji Ikari is in pain and needs help. They will talk, and reconcile some of their differences, but the guilt over that action will prevent him from confessing immediately. It is not an act that he will be able to live with unless he attempts to make amends. In the meantime, perhaps their relationship will heal to the point that when he does confess, Asuka can forgive him. By then, more of humanity will have had time to return and perhaps the two of them will have others to support them. Only time will tell.”

“I hope you know what you're doing. Like I said to Asuka, not even Third Impact can turn back time...” Kyoko frowned and raised an eyebrow at Lilith. “...can it? _Could_ we have prevented all this from happening?”

Lilith shook her head. “Even if it were possible, there was simply too much that would have to change in order to prevent events from unfolding as they have. Lives would have to be improved. SEELE would need to be stopped, as well as Gendo Ikari. Sending someone back would create ripples in time. Those ripples could very well lead to a worse outcome, such as all three Children dying and SEELE gaining full control of Instrumentality. If that happened, humanity would cease to exist.”

“I see...”

The scientist and the mother of humanity were quiet for a long time. Taking the silence as a cue that their conversation was ended, Lilith got to her feet and began to walk into the crowd.

“Wait!” Kyoko yelled at the girl's back. Lilith stopped and looked over her shoulder, but did not speak. “Will... will it be possible for me to leave this place eventually, too? Will I ever see my daughter again?”

The silence stretched out as they regarded each other. Lilith eventually said a single word, before turning and disappearing into the fog. Kyoko stared into nothingness until her eyes began to water, and the scene around her started to fade out of existence. Sighing, she stood up and slowly vanished into the crowd.


	6. Chapter 6

“Pack up, Asuka,” Misato ordered, throwing a backpack at the girl's feet. “We're getting out of here.”

Asuka immediately started putting food and drink into the bag, before Misato stopped her by dropping one of the blankets on her head. “I _meant_ grab all the sleeping stuff. We won't be coming back here again.”

The redhead looked perplexed as she shoved the blanket into the pack, after removing most of the snacks. “Are we finally going home?”

Misato shook her head. “Not yet. We're going to find Shinji.” She turned to look out of the window. “There's a lot of city to search, and we'll save time by not having to return to one spot to rest. Once we find him, even if... I have to drag him around again, _then_ we'll go home.”

As the two of them cleared up their sleeping space, a thought occurred to Asuka, and she voiced it. “It's not like I'm being pessimistic but... what if he's already-” The glare that Misato shot her way was as good as a verbal interruption.

“Shinji. Is not. Dead,” Misato slowly stated. “If he's dead, it means I failed. I've already failed my duty as the guardian of you two before, because of my obsession with the truth. But now I will not let _anything_ stop me from protecting those I love. We will find Shinji, go home, and be a family. I will _not_ _fail again!_ ”

There was nothing more to be said after her outburst, so they both finished packing in silence. Asuka shouldered the pack and stepped outside. It had taken longer than she had expected to recount her time with her mother, and it was now probably close to ten o'clock. The redhead looked up to the blue sky and hoped that the weather would not try and slow down their search.

Misato had found a sizeable sack in a back room to carry the sleeping bag as well as more food. She stepped outside and turned to face Asuka, who was still staring up at the sky.

“Asuka... sorry for yelling at you like-” Misato started, but a raised hand from the girl stopped her.

“Eh, it's fine,” Asuka airily replied. “You're right, it's stupid to lose hope now. I know it sounds weird, but I kind of feel like... if he _was_ dead, we'd know about it.”

A short sharp laugh came out of Misato's mouth. “You fought giant monsters with equally giant bio-mechanical robots, the world's been nearly completely destroyed, and we've both died and been resurrected. Trust me, that is not even _close_ to weird. And..." She turned her head away, staring at nothing for a moment, before returning her attention to Asuka. "I'll be honest, I'm believing it too. Now, enough standing around. Which way should we go?”

Without a word, Asuka immediately set off towards the last place she had seen Shinji: the pharmacy where he had run away with one of her neural clips. Its lonely twin was wrapped up in her plugsuit at the bottom of her pack. Misato had either not noticed the empty interface band or chosen not to comment, and Asuka certainly didn't feel like trying to explain.

Strangely, the lack of the familiar weight on her head had been easier to get used to than she expected. She had worn the red connectors practically as long as she had been an Evangelion pilot, and she normally felt naked without them; they had been a core part of her identity. Perhaps it was the destruction of her Evangelion, or maybe it was her own death and rebirth, but Asuka had come to realise that she simply didn't care if she wasn't wearing them anymore. Now it was just... an object.

Seeing her mother's long and beautiful hair once more certainly made the decision easier, as Asuka now wanted her own hair to emulate that. The neural clips had held her hair up for too long; now her red locks flowed down, reaching the middle of her back. It would still take a while before her hair could rival that of her mother, but she was content to wait.

They arrived at the pharmacy in short order. A cursory inspection revealed that Shinji had still not returned. After collecting a few medical supplies, Asuka pointed in the direction that she had seen Shinji run off after their encounter, and she almost continued on when Misato spoke up.

“Wait, I don't think this is really going to work...”

“What? We _have_ to find him!” Asuka protested. "And going on this hunt was _your_ idea!"

“That's not what I meant, Asuka,” Misato replied. “There are way too many buildings, far too many places to hide. It would take weeks to search this city, and we might still miss Shinji.”

The girl folded her arms and leaned against a wall. The city was in shambles. Damaged and destroyed buildings were everywhere. Shinji could even be hiding nearby and they'd never know. “Well what do you suggest then?”

Misato put a hand to her chin and began pacing in circles as she thought aloud. “Shinji's obviously haunted by what happened, and from what you've told me he's probably scared out of his mind. What kind of place would he go where he'd feel safe and secure?”

“How about our apartment? He might be hiding under his bed. The idiot was always in his room whenever he got into one of his moods.”

“Hmm... no. It's a nice idea, but he's sure to know that he'd run into us eventually there. It needs to be a quiet and secluded place where nobody would go. Some place like...” Misato stopped and her eyes widened as inspiration struck. “The overlook!”

* * *

Asuka wasn't sure how long it had taken to reach the winding path she and Misato were now on, but the position of the sun above them put the time at roughly midday. As they went up the slope, she was forced to grudgingly acknowledge that if it weren't for the devastation of the surrounding landscape, the overlook would have been a perfect place to relax.

She would also admit that the massive hole in the ground at the centre of the fortress city spoiled the view far more than anything else possibly could.

“What's so great about this spot anyway?” Asuka finally asked

“You can see the entire city from up there,” Misato replied, waving a hand in the direction of Tokyo-3. “I took Shinji here after the Third Angel, to show him what he had saved.”

“And you think he'll be here _now_?” Asuka asked disbelievingly as she looked up into the hills surrounding the city.

The woman nodded. “It's a distinct possibility. Before you arrived, sometimes he'd come home really late from school. I asked him once where he went, and Shinji mentioned this overlook. I checked with Section Two and they confirmed his story. He'd apparently go up here for a few hours and just stare at the city. A couple of times they actually had to tell Shinji that it was getting late before he'd leave, and they would drive him home.”

“Why did he stop when I arrived?” Asuka turned around when Misato neglected to respond, and found the woman simply staring at her. “W-why are you looking at me like that?”

Misato covered her mouth to stifle a chuckle. “I think it was because he found something closer to home to take his mind off whatever he was unhappy about.”

It took Asuka a moment to process what Misato meant, and when it finally clicked her face turned beet red. When Misato saw that, she could no longer hold the laugh in. Asuka stomped her foot in indignation. “T-that's not funny, Misato!”

Still grinning too much to formulate a response, Misato simply beckoned Asuka to keep following, and the two continued the long walk up the hill. When they finally reached the top, they were able to fully take in the desolate ruins of Tokyo-3.

“Horrible, isn't it?” Misato said flatly as she stepped up to the barrier on the edge of the cliff. “It's just fortunate that the city was almost completely evacuated. There were only skeleton crews left topside when the bomb hit.” The woman leaned on the guardrail and closed her eyes in thought.

Asuka shook her head in disgust and turned away from the sight. Wandering over to the shelter, the object that caught her eye was enough to improve her mood. “Misato, I found something!”

It took several attempts to draw the woman's attention away from the vista. When Misato finally made it to the shelter, Asuka held up something. Misato had to stop and think for a moment to identify the misshapen objects in her hand. They were dirty, wet and worn out to the point of practically falling apart in her hands, but she eventually figured out what they were: Shinji's shoes.

“Looks like your hunch was right,” Asuka remarked.

“Thank god for that,” Misato replied. “This is the only place I can think of where he would go. I just hope he's still here. Stay put, Asuka. No offence, but I'm pretty sure you're the last thing he wants to see right now.”

Asuka almost opened her mouth for an angry retort, but she knew Misato was only being truthful. Instead, she rolled her eyes and took a seat in the shelter, unpacking food and drink for their lunch.

Knowing that any further noise could spook the boy into fleeing, Misato had to practically sneak around the overlook while searching for more signs of his presence. She quickly found footprints in the still-damp dirt that matched the battered shoes. The tracks wandered around the site, going both to the edge of the cliff and a nearby tree where a half-empty water bottle was found, before terminating at the shelter. Of Shinji himself there was no sign, to her despair.

“Good news and bad news,” Misato said to Asuka as she sat down next to the girl and began eating.

The girl waved a chip vaguely in the air as she said, “I'm sure I know what it is, but bad news first, please.”

“Shinji isn't here, obviously. Good news is he must have come to this place fairly recently. The footprints are still fresh; there's been no rain or wind to disturb them yet.”

“He might have left around night-time, or early this morning then. We would have seen him as we made our way here otherwise, wouldn't we? Damnit, if we hadn't spent the morning talking about my mother, we might have caught him!” Asuka just barely managed to stop from slamming her fist into the table.

“Calm down, Asuka. You don't know that for sure.” Misato gently grasped her arm and pulled it down. She sat back as the girl suddenly got to her feet. “What is it?”

“You don't think...” Asuka's eyes darted towards the guardrail and the footprints in front of it, unable to voice the idea that had formed. She had noticed deeper depressions in the mud where Shinji must have stood near the edge of the cliff. The two of them quickly scrambled to the barrier and looked over. There was a moment of tense silence as they scanned the bottom of the cliff and then...

“Nothing, thank god _,_ ” Misato finally said as they both leaned against the guardrail and sighed in relief. “Don't scare me like that, Asuka! I never again want to think of my boy committing suicide!”

“I just thought... with everything that's happened, he might have... been that far gone.”

“Never. Again,” Misato repeated. Asuka waved a hand in agreement. She stared at the ground to avoid her guardian's glare, and spotted more tracks. These were simply vaguely oval shaped, with no shoe tread to be seen. “Hey. Looks like the idiot walked off in his socks.”

A trail of muddy prints started at the shelter and paused at the barrier once more, before leaving the overlook down the path that Asuka and Misato had walked up an hour beforehand. Asuka ran down the path attempting to follow the tracks, but they quickly faded away leaving nothing more than vague smudges that easily blended into the ground.

Asuka growled under her breath as she stomped back up to the shelter where Misato was finishing off the chips that she had abandoned. She shook her head at the woman's unspoken question before plopping down on the bench. The lone neural clip was retrieved from the backpack and absently twirled in her hands as she sighed. After a few minutes, she held the red object up to her eyes as if seeking a clue in its once-shiny plastic surface.

“Misato, can I ask a favour?” she quietly asked, still staring at the clip.

“Of course, Asuka. After what we've been through, I'll do anything to help.”

“...I want to go to the Geofront.”

Misato raised an eyebrow before hurriedly swallowing. “Um, okay,” she replied. “I'm not sure how we'd get down there though. The power generators are damaged, maybe even destroyed, and I'm afraid I never learned where all the emergency entrances are. They're probably all buried under rubble now. It'll be a tough job to get down there, and we still have Shinji to find.”

“We can just go to the edge of the crater. This won't take too long.”

“Asuka... what are you planning to do?” Misato suspiciously asked.

“It's nothing serious, just something I never got to do. I... want to say goodbye to Unit-02. To my mother.”

* * *

The Geofront.

Once covered by over a kilometre of earth reinforced by twenty-two thick steel armour plates, it now sat open to the sky. The N2 mine dropped by the JSSDF to allow the Mass Production Evangelions easy access had done what not even the Fourteenth Angel could do: tear a hole into the Geofront with one strike.

Misato and Asuka stared in awe at the destruction as they neared the crater. The buildings that originally sat directly above the Geofront had been simply erased from existence, and the structures on the edge had been ripped to shreds by the shockwave. The two of them now stood among the rubble of what had once been skyscraper offices and armoury buildings.

“ _Mein Gott..._ ”Asuka whispered. She could barely see the other side of the hole from where they were standing.

“This is... much more horrifying up close,” added Misato as she too looked around. It was one thing to see such a sight from the air, but quite another entirely to be walking directly towards ground zero.

Asuka tightly clutched the red clip to her chest with both hands as she walked to the rim of the crater. For the entire trip she had been going over what she wanted to say in her mind. Misato halted a few metres away, hanging back to give the girl some privacy. Asuka stopped at the edge and closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath and letting it out slowly, before beginning to speak.

“Mama, I... I never got to say goodbye to you. Your heart and mind were stolen by Unit-02. When we finally found each other again, I still didn't get the chance. We both died fighting to our last breath. And when we were able to meet face to face, you were in such a hurry to get me to return and save Shinji that neither of us had the chance. But now I can-” Asuka stopped as she looked down into the crater. She whirled around to face Misato with a pale look on her face.

“Asuka? What's wrong?” she asked as Asuka frantically waved her over. Misato trotted to the edge and looked down.

“Look down there! What do you see?!” Asuka demanded.

Misato carefully took in the view beneath them. The once-pristine Geofront had been torn to shreds by the JSSDF and the Mass Production Evangelions. Wrecked military vehicles littered the ground, and the destroyer that had once sat upon the lake was now in several pieces far from its original anchor point. She mentioned all of this to Asuka, but then said, “What am I look- ...oh.” It quickly dawned on her that there was a very large, very important detail that she couldn't spot. The entire reason they had come to this place.

The remains of Unit-02 were missing.

“I... really don't mean to be rude,” Misato hesitantly said, “but are you sure this is where you died? Maybe it was somewhere else? Asuka?”

Asuka seemed to not hear her. She was on her hands and knees now, looking down into the hole as if it were an illusion she could dispel with her desperate blue-eyed stare. Several thousand tons of dead flesh, armour, and machinery could not simply disappear. There was not even so much as a bloodstain left from her final battle to signify that something happened.

“Where the hell _is_ it?” she whispered.

“Asuka!”  
  


“Huh?” Asuka snapped out of her daze and looked to Misato, who repeated her question. The girl shook her head and stared back downward. “No, I'm positive this is where I... _we_ died. I clearly remember looking up, seeing the sun shining through the hole and reaching out for it, before the lances struck...”

“Could those Mass Production Evas have taken Unit-02?” suggested Misato.

“I wouldn't know, I was near-death at the time.” Asuka rubbed her stomach, remembering the sensation of their claws digging into her belly. “And besides, there would still be some sign of the fight. There's no blood or bits of armour. It's as if the fight never happened!” She was almost screaming at this point.

Misato laid a calming hand on her shoulder, and Asuka shuddered and hung her head as the anger drained away. “Damnit,” she mumbled.

“Something strange is going on here, we both know that," Misato said. "But we don't have time to investigate. Our top priority is finding Shinji. Anything else can wait."

The girl sighed and nodded as she got to her feet. The two of them slowly began to walk away from the crater. Misato halted after a moment when she heard Asuka make a thoughtful noise. She was shifting her gaze to the other side of the crater, then back to where they were standing and behind them at the ruined buildings. “There's something else wrong here, Misato,” she eventually said after a minute of searching.

“You mean with the massive hole in the middle of our city?”

“Were you in the command centre when the bomb hit? Did you see it happen?”

“No, I was taking Shinji to his Eva.” Misato was unsure where Asuka was going with this query.

“Well I was almost directly underneath it. The hole was huge, no question, but I'm positive that it wasn't _this_ big. This crater looks to be the exact size of the Geofront itself!”

The major opened and closed her mouth several times as she attempted to answer. Finally, she snapped it shut as she realised that her charge was completely correct. At their maximum yield, an N2 mine _could_ possibly leave a crater of this magnitude, but an explosion capable of punching a kilometre-deep hole nearly half the width of the city would have destroyed the _entire_ city and most of the surrounding hillside, leaving nothing left of Tokyo-3. Misato said as much to Asuka, who nodded in agreement.

“Add it to the mystery pile, Asuka, we need-” Misato was cut off by a scream in the distance. A sound that Asuka recognised instantly and turned her blood to ice. She had heard that horrible noise before, just before she died. It was something she would never be able to forget.

The scream of a tortured boy.

* * *

Despite the scream sounding like it had originated further along the lip of the crater, it also felt as if Shinji had been right next to Asuka. Without a word to Misato, she dropped her pack and dashed off in the direction it had come from even before the echoes had ceased. She could still hear the scream in her ears as she ran over and around the rubble.

There was no thought given to how she could still determine where Shinji was minutes after hearing him cry out. The destruction around her made it look like she was merely running in circles, but Asuka could feel something pulling at her like a magnet attracting metal.

As she was finally starting to wonder if her mind was playing tricks on her, Asuka crested a mound and spotted a limp form on the ground near a military truck.

“Shinji!” Asuka hastened over to where the boy lay and rolled him onto his back. Only the very slow rise and fall of Shinji's chest indicated that he was alive. The dark circles around his eyes suggested that he had not slept for several days, and Asuka doubted that his current state of unconsciousness was going to help at all. Especially after whatever had triggered the scream that could be heard from so far away.

Perhaps it was also responsible for the blood slowly oozing from the fresh wound on his forehead. Asuka regretted dropping the pack, as the medical supplies she had taken from the pharmacy would be getting used much sooner than she anticipated. A strip torn off her shirt was used to clean away the blood, and Asuka breathed a sigh of relief when the injury was seen to not be as severe as it first seemed.

Shinji began to twitch at her ministration, and a frown crossed the boy's already uneasy face. Asuka began to lightly pat his face and call his name, hoping to revive him, when the ground shuddered and slowly started to tilt underneath them. Looking up, she realised just how perilously close they were to the edge of the crater. A noise from behind drew her attention, and Asuka turned around and swore loudly at the sight of the truck rolling directly towards them.

Whether it was due to damage or a careless driver, Asuka didn't care. The vehicle was moving too fast to get both herself and Shinji out of the way. She wrapped her arms around the boy and threw herself to the ground, keeping their limbs as close as possible to their bodies. Asuka took one last glimpse at the truck before closing her eyes and laying face-down as the undercarriage passed overhead, missing the two teenagers by what felt like millimetres.

A screech of metal brought Asuka's head back up, and she immediately wished that the two of them were anywhere else. The truck had gotten caught up on debris at the side of the crater, and its weight was causing the chunk of road they were on to shift and tilt. The thought of how long the fall into the Geofront would be drove Asuka to her feet as she attempted to climb the increasingly steep slope, still holding onto Shinji.

Due to their combined weight, and the awkwardness of carrying another person up such a sharp incline, Asuka only made it about halfway when her feet slid out from under her. A thrown hand managed to find purchase in a large crack in the surface, but Shinji was now hanging solely by her right hand. She heard the truck slide into the crater.

_'Shit, we're both screwed,'_ she grimly thought to herself. _'I can't climb up with only one arm, but there's no way I'm letting him fall! Damnit, Shinji, couldn't you have collapsed in a park or something?!'_

The only good news Asuka could think of was that the ground was no longer moving. If the truck had remained stuck on the edge, she would likely now be hanging vertically. As it was, both arms were already protesting at the strain, and she had not had enough time to recover from the sprint.

“ _Misatoooo!”_ Even as Asuka screamed for their guardian, she realised that no help would come in time. She didn't even know if the woman had been able to follow her. The death grip she had on both Shinji's arm and the fissure was beginning to give out. Her left fingers were on fire, and her right arm almost felt as if it had been bisected again.

“ _MISATOOOOOOO!!”_

Her fingers slipped out of the crack.

* * *

Misato was left far behind as Asuka ran. She gathered up the pack the girl had dropped and started running after her as Asuka nearly vanished, her fireball of red hair the only thing standing out amidst the dirt and debris around the crater. Misato did her best to ignore the extra weight she was carrying as she took off after Asuka, trying to use her hair as a beacon.

The cry had shaken Misato to her core; she could still feel the pure despair in that voice. Misato's vision soon became blurry as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. Shinji needed help, she now had an idea of where to find him, and she was _running too slow_. The ground itself seemed to be attempting to stall the major as she found herself constantly stumbling on the rubble.

A loose rock sent Misato tumbling, and she just barely avoided landing head first on a piece of jagged metal. As she stood back up, Misato swore as she realised that the fall had made her lose sight of Asuka. She started running in what she hoped was the right direction. Tense minutes passed, but there was no sign of the girl. Misato was about to search for a higher vantage point when the faint sound of her name being called reached her ears. Misato turned in that direction and a second, much louder scream got her running again.

A minute later she made it to the top of a small hill and found Asuka sitting on the ground some distance away from a chunk of road that was tilted towards the hole in the city. Her arms were wrapped tightly around the chest of a _very_ familiar form and the girl was staring unblinkingly towards the crater's edge as she hyperventilated. The heavy pack was dropped next to Asuka as Misato nearly fell to the ground and attempted to catch her breath.

“Are... are you alright?” Misato gasped out. The girl failed to answer, still staring at the edge, so she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and gently shook her to get her attention. The stunned redhead jolted and turned towards Misato, and the woman could see fear in those eyes, an incredibly rare emotion for the German girl to show. Asuka's gaze slowly moved back to the crater, and then locked onto the head pressed against her chest. Her breathing finally began to return to normal at the sight of Shinji's messy brown hair, before she closed her eyes and buried her face in it.

Misato repeated her question, and Asuka nodded slightly. With a deep inhale and exhale the girl got to her feet, still carrying Shinji, and began walking away from the gaping hole in the city. She appeared to be paying little attention to what was in front of her, as she narrowly avoided wandering into a chunk of masonry.

Picking the bag back up after a moment of staring at Asuka's back, Misato set off after her. She refrained from commenting, sensing that something had greatly distressed her. Asuka would talk when she was ready. Or perhaps she wouldn't say anything for the rest of the day. It was difficult to tell right now.

Regardless, they had finally found Shinji, and he was alive. That alone almost brought tears of joy to Misato's eyes. From what she could see as she drew up alongside Asuka, the boy had been through quite a lot. There was blood mixed with dust streaked down the side of his face, and the knuckles on his right hand were swollen, possibly dislocated or even broken, and covered with drying blood.

Eventually they reached a less devastated area of the city. Asuka suddenly stopped walking and knelt down, laying out Shinji on the footpath in front of her. She took the pack from Misato and opened it up. A bottle of water, some sterilising wipes, and a roll of bandages were extracted, and the two of them silently began cleaning and dressing the wounds. Neither of them had thought to acquire splints from the pharmacy, so they had to make do with whatever small scraps of wood were nearby to immobilise the fingers on Shinji's right hand.

His left hand was tightly curled around a slightly battered and familiar chunk of red plastic. It took so much effort for Asuka to prise his fingers away from it, she was surprised that the neural clip hadn't cracked under the pressure of his grip. While she didn't like the thought of taking away something that Shinji had apparently been using for some sort of comfort, she liked even less the possibility of him letting go, dropping it somewhere it couldn't be found. Instead, she tucked it into the pocket of his trousers.

When they were finished, Misato was packing the supplies back up when a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Asuka's hand was slowly drifting towards Shinji's face, before it suddenly clenched into a fist and returned to her side as the girl huffed. Misato pretended not to notice, before opening the bag again and drawing out two water bottles, one of which was passed to Asuka.

“Thanks,” the girl muttered as she unscrewed the top and began to drink. Misato sat back and watched the girl as she stared at Shinji's face. As the silence started to become uncomfortable, Asuka finally spoke.

“I found Shinji. He was right near the edge of the crater for some reason. I was trying to clean his head wound when the ground shifted and a truck rolled towards us. We managed to avoid it, but the weight at the edge only made things worse. We were nearly hanging over the crater itself when the ground stopped tilting. I couldn't pull myself _and_ Shinji up, so I started calling for you, hoping you were close by.”

Misato nodded. “I'm sorry, I lost sight of you and was starting to go in the wrong direction.”

“If I had gone a little slower, you would have been able to keep up-”

“If you _had_ gone a little slower, Shinji might not be here right now,” Misato interrupted as she shook her head. “Don't worry about it, Asuka. The important thing is that we're all safe now. But... how did you get back onto solid ground?”

Asuka sighed and leaned back against the wall, looking up at the sky. “As much as I'd love to say so, it wasn't me. Someone else pulled me up.”

Misato's eyes widened in surprise. “Someone else?” she repeated. “There are other people in the city now?”

“No, the rescuer clearly wasn't human,” Asuka said. “In fact, if my guess is right, we were saved by an Angel.”

There was shocked silence for a minute as Misato attempted to understand. “An... an _Angel?!_ As in one of those things we were fighting last year?!”

Asuka slowly nodded, and looked back down at Misato. “Tell me something. What did Kaworu Nagisa actually look like?”

The sudden question confused Misato for a moment before she recovered and replied, “He... had silver hair, red eyes, and he was always wearing the same uniform the boys at your school have. Wait...” She frowned. “Are you going to tell me you were rescued by the Seventeenth Angel?!”

“Well it certainly wasn't Wondergirl standing on thin air and giving me a shit-eating grin,” the girl snapped, before calming back down. “He grabbed me just as I lost my grip and pulled me onto solid ground. When I got my bearings again, I saw that Nagisa person standing above the crater looking all... _glowy_. He was staring at Shinji with this... I guess unhappy expression on his face, then he looked and me and got all smug. He must have heard you coming, because he vanished right before you showed up.”

“Uh, wow,” Misato said after a moment. “I can definitely say I was not expecting that to happen. When I heard you screaming I was afraid I'd be too late. Guess all we can do is be thankful that Nagisa came back from... from the dead to save my two kids.”

“But how the hell is he still around? You said he was killed by Shinji.”

Misato sighed and got to her feet. “Know what? I'm tired and I want to go home, so let's just do that. Save all the questions for when we're not exhausted.”

Asuka rolled her eyes as she also stood up. “Do you even know where we are? Your apartment could be at the opposite end of the city.”  
  
“Nope! It's about a ten minute drive from here.” The woman pointed at a sign hanging from a building across the street. “That's the auto-shop where I got my Renault serviced. Wonder if they have anything we can... 'borrow'.”

A quick look inside the auto-shop revealed that there were no vehicles they could use. Asuka didn't seem to mind, as she went back to where Shinji lay on the ground. As he was picked up, the girl spoke.

“So which way are we going then?”

Thinking for a moment, Misato finally pointed in the direction they had been originally travelling. “The apartment is this way. It took me about an hour or so to walk home. I would have called for Section Two to pick me up, but Ritsuko made a joke about my weight earlier that day and I was still in a bit of a mood.”

“Did the walk help?” Asuka grinned as she lifted Shinji into a fireman's carry, distributing his weight across her shoulders.  
  
“Hell no, the next day she said I was looking too skinny.” Misato fumed for a moment before turning serious again. “Hey, are you going to be okay carrying him?”

Asuka looked at the unconscious boy's face as the two of them set off for home with the setting sun at their back. “If Shinji can carry me, I can carry him,” she eventually replied. “I'll be fine. I'm much stronger than him, and... he's not nearly as heavy as I was expecting.”

The boy was wearing the exact same clothes as the last time Asuka had clearly seen Shinji, on the beach nearly a week ago. As well as not sleeping properly, he had apparently not been eating well either. His ribs were just starting to poke out through the skin under his still-open shirt.

“Damnit _._ He's in pretty bad shape.” She tilted her head towards his face before continuing in a whisper, “Stupid Shinji, not taking proper care of yourself... now we have to carry you home. I hope you appreciate this, dummy.”

“St'p us'ng...”

The sudden mumbled reply almost made Asuka drop the boy in surprise. Misato appeared not to have heard him, but after a short time of walking alone she looked back to see Asuka staring at Shinji's face.

“What is it? Is he awake?”

Asuka said nothing for a moment, still listening intently for anything more from Shinji, but soon turned her head and said, “I think he said 'stop using her face'.”

They stared at each other, wondering if the other person had a clue about the cryptic sentence. Misato could ultimately do nothing but shrug helplessly before continuing down the road. Asuka remained still for a moment longer, staring at Shinji's closed eyes, before she set off after her guardian.

* * *

Half-lidded red orbs watched the trio move away from where two teenagers had almost lost their lives. The owner of the eyes was panting slightly but trying to remain stoic. Deep inside his chest, a presence radiated feelings of relief.

As the sun set and the stars began to light up the sky, the boy closed his eyes and spoke.

“Are you going to tell me that I shouldn't have done that?”

“No. I am merely curious as to your reason for doing so.”

He turned around, and faced his counterpart. The blue-haired girl was standing on thin air, just as he was. She tilted her head slightly and continued.

“After all, if they had perished, you would have been guaranteed to succeed.”

“But I do not want to win by default,” the boy answered with a smile. “It would be a hollow victory and prove nothing. My children must fight yours at their best. Anything less is unacceptable.”

What he neglected to mention was that the presence inside him had suddenly urged him frantically towards his actions, and he couldn't work out why.

Lilith gazed up at the bloodstained moon as it made its ascent and absently rubbed her neck. “What of your... Revenants?” she asked. “They will be incapable of fighting at full strength for a long time.”

“Neither of us can create perfect life from nothingness. They will suffice.” Adam turned back to stare in the direction of the Lilin he had saved. “You should concern yourself more with _your_ champions. Our ceasefire will not last forever.”

The eyes of Lilith turned blank as she saw something beyond the sight of either of them. “Even here, I cannot see into his mind anymore. That is... unfortunate. I can only sense indistinct snatches of pain and grief. All I can do now is hope that I have done enough to aid him.” She sighed heavily and began to float away. “We should return now. Our forms can no longer maintain permanent stability outside of the Sea, and I know that your rescue effort has taxed you greatly.”

Lilith stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “But... thank you for saving him. When I had the sensation that death was soon to visit Shinji Ikari I resigned myself, and the rest of my children, to our fates. I refused to believe that there was anything to be done. I could not even cast my sight out of the sea, but you broke out, not even knowing if you would be able to help... but determined to try.”

“I don't believe it'll be something I can do again, though,” Adam remarked with a grin.

He noticed that Lilith was starting to breathe heavily now too. A faint sheen of sweat was visible on both their faces. He held an arm up to his face, watching the skin slowly melt in the moonlight as his corporeal body started losing cohesion, before turning in a circle to view the ruins of Tokyo-3 one more time. Lilith had already disappeared, and Adam followed suit a few minutes later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N from FFN: A couple of reviewers asked about memories and Instrumentality. The topic of the 'hive mind' of Instrumentality will come up later in the story. Asuka on the other hand...
> 
> This is just what I saw when I watched EoE, so your mileage may vary. That scene with Asuka and Shinji in the kitchen where she refuses to help him? That was just in Shinji's head. It's that scene that causes him to finally give everything up and say 'to hell with it', starting Third Impact. After all, look at how... excessive Asuka acts. It's like somebody turned her anger up to twelve. Not to mention that she somehow knew about what he did in the hospital. 'She' is just a manifestation that Shinji subconsciously created to try and cope with what was happening to him. A... caricature? Is that the right word?
> 
> That's why Asuka doesn't remember the hospital or the kitchen scene. She wasn't there.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

While Asuka was easily able to bear the weight of an unconscious boy on her back on the way home, having to climb seven flights of stairs with said burden was what left her exhausted by the time they reached Misato's apartment. Even so, Asuka refused to put him down, leaving Misato to struggle alone with the electronically operated door.

Misato didn't seem to mind the lack of assistance, and it only took her a minute to shove the door open far enough to admit all three of them. She turned around to call Asuka over, only to see her frowning while staring at Shinji's face. The call died on her lips, and Misato instead walked over to to the girl and patted her on the back to get her attention.

“Come on, let's get him into his room,” she quietly said.

They both entered the apartment, Asuka walking sideways so as not to hit the boy's head on the wall in the narrow corridor leading to the kitchen and dining room. She was still so focused on Shinji that she didn't notice her guardian halt next to the dining table, and almost bumped into her.

“Well, I guess you were kind of right, Asuka. Shinji was certainly here at one point,” Misato dryly remarked. “This place is much too clean for the apocalypse. I'd probably go so far as to say it's cleaner than it's ever been.”

Indeed, the apartment was almost immaculate. The only time it had ever looked like this, even after Shinji's arrival, was when Misato had first stepped through the door. Even now, after however long it had been since Shinji cleaned the place, the air still faintly smelled like lemons.

Tiring of being stuck behind her, Asuka eventually nudged Misato with Shinji's foot. The major quickly turned around and apologised before getting out of her way. Asuka just sighed and shook her head as she continued through the apartment, pointedly not looking into her own room when she reached the doorway to Shinji's bedroom.

Shinji was gently placed on his bed, and Asuka stood up, closing her eyes and stretching to ease the aches in her body. Her hand bumped something and she opened her eyes.

_'Mein Gott,'_ she thought as she looked around the room. ' _I never noticed before just how tiny this room is.'_

Just by stretching her arms out to either side of her, Asuka could almost touch two opposing walls in the closet that had become Shinji's bedroom after her arrival in Japan. The shelves hadn't been moved out when he had moved in, and those combined with the bed took up the majority of the improvised bedroom. Eventually she turned back to look at Shinji's sleeping form.

_'And he didn't even put up a fight when I kicked him out of his old room. There's not even a freaking_ window  _in here!'_

Her temper flared slightly as the memory of the Third Child's passivity surfaced, but she quashed it simply by focusing on the unconscious boy's troubled-looking face. It was almost impossible to be truly angry at him now. Whenever she did  _that_ expression would come to mind, the one that so often appeared in her dreams as of late. The look of a boy who had been pushed down so many times he stopped trying to get back up. The look of a dog that had been kicked time and time again and didn't know what it was being punished for. The look of-

The _sound_ of someone clearing their throat turned Asuka's head to the doorway, where Misato was leaning against the frame. She had likely spent the last minute or so watching the girl, noticing how her fist had clenched before slowly unfurling.

“We should both get to bed too, Asuka,” Misato said. “It's been a long day and we both could do with a good night's sleep.”

Asuka nodded and made to leave the room, but a hand in the way from Misato stopped her.

“You should know that I left your room _exactly_ as you left it. It's your job to clean it up.” The woman was not looking at Asuka, her eyes focused on the boy on the bed. Asuka merely pushed the hand out of her way and stepped into her room. She knew exactly what she had done before she had run away, and she was certainly not expecting help with it.

Asuka was so sure that it took several seconds for the state of her room to sink in.

“ _Was zum Teufel?!”_ she yelled, bringing in Misato.

“I told you I... left it...” Misato tried to repeat, before petering out as she took in the scene.

The room was as pristine as the rest of the house. Perhaps more so. Only a small hole in a wall detracted from the perfection of Asuka's bedroom. The two females stared at each other before, as one, turning to look at Shinji's bedroom.

“He wouldn't have... would he?” Asuka finally asked.

“Why not? He cleaned the rest of the house.” Misato replied.

“Yeah, but... I told him plenty of times never to go into my room!”

“You also made him do your laundry. He had to put it somewhere, didn't he?”

Asuka palmed her face in frustration at the major's logic.

“Look at it this way,” Misato continued sarcastically. “Now you don't have to deal with the consequences of your actions.”

The girl slowly pulled her hand down her face, staring daggers into Misato's back as the woman walked back down the hall after firing her shot. She  _had_ been planning on cleaning the room herself, as a sort of self-punishment, but once again her plan had been ruined by a certain brown-haired boy. Asuka didn't know whether to hit him or thank him.

A shriek from outside her bedroom stole her attention. She hurried into the kitchen to find Misato gibbering in front of the open fridge. She pushed past her stunned guardian and stared into the fridge. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to her, no rotting stench or anything, so she looked back at Misato who was now almost forming actual words.

“M-m-my-m-my b-b-b-b...”

It took Asuka a moment to understand what Misato meant, and she chuckled slightly as she figured out what was missing from the fridge. She raised a hand and lightly slapped Misato across the cheek, knocking her out of her daze. Misato rubbed her jaw where she had been hit, wincing slightly at the heat on her face.

“Ow. Okay, there's no beer,” she finally said. “I know I had plenty in there before, so where's it all gone? Do you think Shinji drank it?”

“Somehow I doubt Shinji would drink an entire fridge of beer and _still_ tidy the house up this much,” Asuka replied. “He probably just threw it out to make room for all that other stuff. Can't say I blame him, nothing holds a candle to German beer.”

Misato slumped into a dining chair and put her head in her hands as she sighed. Her usual plan of a nightcap was now shot. She would now have to face the horrible fate of going to sleep without several beers in her.

“Look at it this way, Misato. Now's a good time to quit drinking.”

Just like Asuka, Misato clearly didn't know whether to hit Shinji or thank him. She settled for slowly rising out of her chair and stumbling off to her bedroom.

Asuka watched her leave with a smirk, before going to her own bedroom. Changing into her sleeping clothes, which had miraculously survived her rampage through the room, she got into bed and thudded her head down onto her pillow.

A crinkling sound and the feel of something solid under her pillow brought confusion to the girl's face. She sat back up and pursed her lips, shoving a hand under her pillow as she tried to remember what she had that would feel like... a block of chocolate?

The offending item was brought out, and in the dim light of the moon streaming through her window, Asuka sat and beheld the incredible find.

“ _Grundgütiger!_ ” she exclaimed, holding the chocolate up to her face. The last time she had seen a bar of chocolate this big was back in Germany when she was much younger. That one had been fairly impressive, but this glorious vision blew it out of the water. Asuka was about to start wondering where it had come from when the obvious answer came to mind.

Shinji. Who else?

Deciding to worry about it in the morning, Asuka placed the block on her bedside table and laid back down. More crinkling brought her head back up again.

_'What did he do, stuff money under my pillow too? Are you trying to bribe me, Third Child?'_

What her hand pulled out this time was definitely paper, but not currency. Asuka got out of bed, walking to the window and unfolding it. The light was bad, and so was her ability to read _kanji_ , but she quickly understood what was written on the piece of paper. Especially when she saw her own name.

“ _I'm sorry, Asuka...”_

XX

It came as a bit of a surprise to Misato when she was the first one up the next morning. The last time she had fallen asleep without the aid of alcohol was unknown, and she had completely forgotten what it was like to wake up without a horrible taste in her mouth.

Since the power grid was damaged, the electric kettle was a useless lump of plastic. Misato started rummaging through the cupboards, and soon discovered what she was looking for: an old teapot she could use on the stove. She quickly set about getting some water boiling, mentally thanking the heavens that the gas still worked, and soon had a piping hot cup of coffee ready to shake the last vestiges of sleep from her mind.

The whistling of the teapot had apparently awoken the German girl, as Asuka soon made her stumbling way past the dining table into the bathroom, looking like she had barely slept at all and clutching something in her hand. When she came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and plopped down on a chair, a mug of coffee was wordlessly placed in front of her. Asuka mumbled something that may have been “thank you” and took a mouthful of the black liquid.

And almost spat it back out.

“Blech! This is horrible!” Asuka exclaimed, pulling a face. “Do you take your own coffee like this?!”

“Nope. No power, so there's no milk.” Misato grinned. “But it still worked, you're wide awake now.”

The redhead elected not to comment further, and the two of them drank their coffee in companionable silence. Asuka winced slightly at every acrid mouthful, too proud to get up and add sugar, but still finished her cup well before Misato.

“What's that you're holding?” Misato suddenly asked. Asuka jolted, and looked at the hand holding the piece of paper she had found last night. She unfolded the note and stared at it for a while, before slowly handing it to Misato. The woman took the paper and read it slowly, before handing it back.

“Is this why you looked so tired?” she asked.

Asuka nodded and related how she had discovered the note under her pillow. She had spent several hours last night sitting on the floor staring at the words in the moonlight after figuring out what the rest of the note said. That one word, 'sorry', repeated several times on the note, had always infuriated her when Shinji had said it in the past, but now she wanted to hear _anything_ from the boy, even an apology. Misato nodded sympathetically, also wishing that her surrogate son would awaken.

For reasons unknown even to Asuka, she decided not to mention the chocolate. After she had been awoken by the whistling kettle, the girl had hidden the chocolate in her wardrobe before leaving her bedroom.

But not before eating a larger piece of it than she had intended.

The morning passed slowly into the afternoon. Asuka and Misato occupied that time by checking the other apartments for anything useful. Since the building had been used to house both the major and two of the pilots, there had not been many rooms occupied by civilians. Most of the apartments in the building were empty, especially around the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors as a security buffer. The ones that had been lived in were used by their Section Two detail.

In one of these rooms on their floor, Misato procured a pair of NERV-issue two-way radios and a stash of batteries for them.

“Brilliant,” Asuka said when Misato showed them to her. “Now we can split up and cover more ground once we need to scavenge away from the apartment.”

“Well, that's _close_ to what I had in mind,” Misato replied. “One of us needs to stay at the apartment to keep an eye on Shinji. I don't want to leave him alone for too long in case something happens.”

Asuka nodded grimly as she realised she hadn't thought of the fact that Shinji had been alone in the apartment all day. She resolved to check on him when they were done.

Apart from the radios, there was depressingly little in the Section Two apartments. It was mostly surveillance equipment, uncomfortable looking cots, small arms, and instant meals. Fortunately for Asuka they were not the nuclear curry ones Misato favoured, and so she grabbed several of them.

Misato found a pistol and holster to replace the one she had lost in the Geofront, and even found another handgun for Asuka. The Children went through firearms training and safety courses as part of their pilot training, so she knew the German girl was perfectly capable with the weapon. Even so, she still demanded that the weapons remained unloaded while in the house and to only use them in a dire emergency.

They returned to their apartment. While Misato busied herself putting away the few items they had acquired, Asuka picked up a torch and hurried down the hall to Shinji's room.

Shinji was shivering despite the bedsheets he was curled up under. Asuka rushed to his side and touched his forehead near the bandage, discovering it to be rather warm. She was checking under the dressings on his head and hand, revealing nothing wrong, when a memory stirred.

Shinji, frozen in fear while climbing through a window. An off-white cloth wrapped around the leg in mid air. Asuka almost tore the sheets off the bed in her haste to check the bandage both she and Misato had failed to notice the day before.

The old cloth stuck to the skin as Asuka slowly peeled it away, revealing a cut halfway down Shinji's thigh. The skin around the injury was red and swollen, while the cut itself was slowly oozing pus. Asuka swore loudly and called for Misato. The woman let out a curse as well when she came into the room and saw the infected wound. The two of them carefully lifted Shinji out of bed and brought him to the living room, where the afternoon sun would provide better light for them.

“Damnit, we don't have any antibiotics,” Misato groaned as she rummaged through their medical supplies. Asuka stared at the ground in dismay before suddenly jumping to her feet and running to the kitchen. She returned a moment later with a jar of honey.

“Asuka... what are you planning?” Misato nervously asked, eyeing the jar.

“Honey's a traditional treatment for infected wounds,” Asuka replied. “Preferably manuka, which is what I have here thanks to Shinji.”

The pair worked quickly to clean the infection as best as they could and apply a honey-coated dressing, before applying fresh bandages as well as replacing the ones from yesterday at the same time. Asuka had to almost yank the jar away from Misato when they were done, as the major had started eating the honey. Shinji's sheets were brought out from his room and the boy was wrapped up snugly in them as the sun began to set.

They ate an early dinner while they watched Shinji and waited. Eventually, his shivering began to subside, and a check on his temperature revealed that it was slowly returning to normal.

“Looks like we're going to have to thank Shinji for catering to your every whim, Asuka,” Misato smirked. “Then again, he's also going to have to thank you for that great idea.”

“Heh, yeah,” Asuka rubbed the back of her head. “I don't know where he got it, but I never thought my demands for some non-Japanese food would actually help someone like this.”

“What's next, are you going to prevent a heart attack with sauerkraut?”

Asuka groaned as she palmed her face while Misato cackled softly to herself. Shinji was returned to his own bed when Asuka and Misato turned in. The doors to the Children's rooms were left open, and Asuka fell asleep clutching the note while looking through the walls towards where Shinji lay.

XX

After some insisting from Misato the next day, Asuka went out and got some antibiotics to properly treat Shinji's infection. The next couple of days would see a rapid improvement in the boy's condition, but he would still not awaken. Misato was starting to worry that his body would start wasting away, as they had no way of feeding him. He was already showing signs of malnourishment, but it was too dangerous to simply try and force sustenance into him while unconscious.

On a suggestion from Asuka, the major procured a small truck and went to a supermarket warehouse, coming back with an entire pallet's worth of canned food, and another of water. What couldn't fit in their apartment was stored next door. It took them an entire day to move the contents of both pallets up seven flights of stairs, and several times Asuka wondered out loud if it would be worth the time to move their lodgings to a lower floor as she stomped up and down the stairwell.

During one of Asuka's days out scavenging, she came back with a bag full of books. Since  last year  Asuka had mostly read magazines or played video games, and Misato  had been either busy at NERV, watching television or asleep, there was very little reading material in the house and  Asuka had quickly blown through all of it. The extra books didn't do much for  her boredom, however. She sorely wanted to play her video games, but the internal battery on her handheld console was long dead.

Finally, after much begging and cajoling for something to do, Misato gave Asuka some earplugs and took her up to the roof with their pistols, and they spent the afternoon shooting at the empty cans and bottles that had been piling up. It was the most fun Asuka had in weeks, even if her ability to aim something not the size of a building was rusty.

Misato's aim, however, was perfect. Every round found its mark directly in the target's centre, sending it spiralling off the apartment building to the road down below. After a while Asuka noticed her guardian's expression twisting into one of anger, and upon emptying her current magazine suggested that they call it a day.

“Is everything okay, Misato?” Asuka asked as she passed Misato a cup of coffee after their return to their apartment “You were starting to look like you wished you had a flamethrower or something.”

The shattering of the coffee cup as it slipped from Misato's grasp was impossibly loud in Asuka's ears, and she was quickly regretting taking her shoes off as the hot liquid splashed around her feet. She hopped from one foot to the other as she yanked her coffee-soaked socks off.

Misato seemed to not notice any of this, however. She was leaning heavily on the table, eyes scrunched closed and shaking slightly.

“Misa-”

“Asuka... please, just... leave me alone,” Misato interrupted. “I don't mean to be rude but just... go check on Shinji or something.”

Asuka nodded wordlessly and stepped into the bathroom to take a quick shower. When she came out, she saw Misato sitting at the table now, head in her hands.

_'Whatever happened,'_ Asuka thought as she moved down the hallway, _'it must have been terrible to cause this reaction in her. I should probably apologise later when she's settled down.'_

She stepped through the doorway into Shinji's room, and realised there were more important matters to deal with at the moment.

The bed was empty.

It was hard to see anything in the darkness, so she quickly grabbed a  flashlight and returned. The sheets were half hanging off of the bed, and there was no sign of Shinji in the corners of the room. Panic began to set in, but just as Asuka was about to yell for Misato, a soft noise from under the bed caught her attention.

Asuka quietly moved over to the bed, kneeling down beside it and pulling the sheets up. The torch shone onto the face of a terrified and shivering Shinji, who flinched and tried to move further away as the beam hit his face.

It slightly surprised the girl that Shinji was capable of wedging himself under the bed as far as he had, considering how low to the ground it was. She set the torch aside and lay down on the floor, putting her at eye level with the boy.

“Come on, Shinji.” She held a hand out to him and tried to coax him out, softly speaking to him as she would a frightened animal. The only response she got was an increase in the boy's trembling. Asuka sighed in frustration, but kept gently calling the boy. Eventually, the shaking subsided and Shinji turned back to face her.

Asuka didn't need direct light to  see how scared he was Even in the shadows cast by the torch, she could see Shinji's cobalt  eyes staring right through her, looking at something only he could see. Asuka quickly glanced behind her just in case there  _was_ something there. She  _had_ been rescued by a ghost a week ago after all. This time however, the room was empty bar the two teenagers.

Finally, after several minutes of eye contact, Shinji ever so slowly reached a hand out to Asuka's. His hand swiftly retreated when the two made contact, as if afraid that she would latch on and violently rip him out of his hiding spot. Asuka's hand simply remained stationary, waiting for him once more. His hand reached out again, slightly faster this time, and slowly wrapped around the girl's hand.

Asuka tried not to think about how warm the boy's hand was in hers, and instead concentrated on holding still. This seemed to boost Shinji's nerve as his shivering body began to settle.

As her body began to get sore from its awkward position on the floor, Asuka very gently tugged on his hand. The boy slowly started to crawl towards her, seemingly drawing strength from their physical contact as the distance between them decreased.

It took a couple of long and tense minutes before Shinji was fully out from under the bed. Now that he was in close proximity to Asuka, and could make out her face, his shaking intensified once more. It got so bad that when Asuka placed her hands on his shoulders to try and calm him, she felt her arms vibrate slightly.

“Shinji, It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you,” she quietly tried to reassure him. The sound of her voice didn't seem to help matters though. Shinji was now trying to back away towards the bed, and only Asuka's grip was preventing him from moving. His body's weakened state was taking its toll on the boy now. He gave up trying to escape, and merely closed his eyes and turned his head as if expecting to be attacked despite the girl's words.

Asuka was having none of this, however. She released her grip on one shoulder and twisted his head back to face her, demanding that he open his eyes. When he finally did, sapphire locked onto cobalt once more, and Asuka saw eyes that did not belong on a boy the same age as her. He had the same stare Asuka had seen back in Germany on soldiers that had been through the Impact Wars. His dark blue eyes were rapidly moving as if witnessing something traumatic and tears were beginning to form in the corners.

_'He must be hallucinating.'_ Asuka thought.  _'Oh **Scheiße** , the gunshots. He was unconscious when we found him. All of a sudden he finds himself back home after whatever knocked him out and people are shooting nearby.'_

Without warning, Shinji suddenly redoubled his efforts to escape her clutches. Caught off guard, Asuka lost her grip on him as the boy fell to the ground. As he attempted to crawl back under the bed, the girl recovered and threw an arm around him, pulling him back towards her and placing her other hand on the back of his head. She tried and failed not to think of the fact that she was essentially _hugging him_ as Shinji squirmed for a few seconds, his face buried in her shoulder, but the burst of strength a moment earlier had clearly sapped whatever remained of his energy as he began to slow.

Asuka unconsciously started stroking his hair and Shinji finally fell asleep in her arms, but something stopped Asuka from simply letting go of him. She blushed heavily as she realised the position they were both in. She was in a dark room cradling a sleeping boy in her arms, someone that she had flung numerous insults at in the past while trying to push them away. Somehow though, Shinji had withstood the barrage despite his own problems and fears, and constantly attempted to make peace with Asuka.

As Shinji's warmth slowly suffused her body, Asuka thought back to something her mother had said before she left the sea. _“_ _Perhaps a kind word at an earlier point in time, or even something as simple as one of you holding the other that night.”_

Asuka closed her eyes and sighed deeply. What was happening now was close to what she had wanted back when she had made Shinji kiss her. One of them holding the other. Just that one simple act would have stopped her from trying not to cry as she pretended to wash her mouth out after nearly suffocating Shinji.

The sound of footsteps nearby caused Asuka to open her eyes again and look up. Misato was standing in the doorway, staring at the pair with a gentle look on her face.

“Everything okay in here?” she asked. “I heard something a moment ago, and I come in to find you hugging him.”

  
“Um, yeah, we're fine,” Asuka replied, blushing again at the mention of that word before informing Misato of what had just happened. “I think our shooting practice scared him or something.”

The woman cursed under her breath. “We should have gone somewhere further away...”

Asuka finally stood up, still holding Shinji, and once more laid him in his bed. She rearranged the sheets over his sleeping body before turning and walking out of the room with Misato on her heels. “Forget about it, nothing we can do now. Let's just have dinner. The idiot's actually _asleep_ now, hopefully tomorrow he'll be okay.”

“You keep using that word. Do you still think he's dumb, or has it become an affectionate nickname?”

“M-Misato!”

  
Before she could be teased further, a sound that hadn't been heard for a long time echoed through the apartment.

Knocking. Someone was knocking at their front door.

They stared at each other in shock, before heading towards the apartment entrance. Perhaps out of paranoia, Misato grabbed her borrowed handgun and covered Asuka as the girl worked to get the door open.

What greeted them made their jaws drop.

“Um, hello,” Maya Ibuki nervously said, looking almost as surprised as they did, with a tired-looking blonde woman leaning heavily on her. “May we please come in?”


	8. Chapter 8

Misato was apologetic about not having an ice pack, but Ritsuko Akagi was merely grateful she could finally sit down and take the weight off her twisted ankle. Maya fussed around her, trying to make the doctor as comfortable as possible, and Ritsuko apparently didn't have the heart to tell her to stop.

Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba came through the door a few minutes later carrying a couple of bags of food each. Maya explained that the group hadn't been sure that Misato had returned yet, but decided that the apartment block was as good a place as any to stay. The plan had originally been to take up residence in the building and wait for Misato's return. It was only when they heard gunshots and saw the empty cans on the road that they realised the major had beaten them back.

"Hang on, didn't you see the grave markers?" Asuka asked from her position on the floor. “Misato's name was on one of them. I really thought she was dead for several days.”

Three of them shook their head, but Shigeru spoke up. “I saw something on the beach in the distance, but didn't have time to look. The others were already heading off and I didn't want to get left behind.” Asuka determined that they must have washed up in a slightly different area than her and Shinji.

"How did you know the gunshots were us though?" Misato inquired as she brought a tray of drinks into the lounge room.

"You and the pilots are practically the only residents in this building," Ritsuko tiredly explained. "And I'm pretty sure you're the only one mad enough to eat that horrible curry stuff you call food. One of your cans nearly hit poor Maya in the head!"

That empty can was what had convinced Ritsuko that it was the major on the roof. Shigeru and Makoto had offered to help her up the seven flights of stairs, but Maya had surprised the doctor by refusing to relinquish her place as Ritsuko's support. She had practically ordered her two co-workers to go get some food so that they weren't mooching off Misato, and the two men had run off as if it were Commander Ikari giving the order.

As Misato exchanged stories with the newcomers, the volume in the room gradually increased. When the news of the Seventeenth Angel's mysterious appearance came up and the shouting started, Asuka finally had to interrupt them.

“Quiet down, damnit!” she hissed. “Shinji's finally getting some real sleep and you're all making too much noise!” With that said, she stormed out of the lounge room. The adults looked sheepishly at each other, and Ritsuko raised an eyebrow at the girl's behaviour. In a lower tone of voice, they continued their conversation as Misato hurriedly filled them in on what happened with Shinji just before their arrival.

A couple of hours later, Maya noticed Ritsuko's head starting to droop while the doctor was speaking of their trek through the city.

“Um, senpai, maybe we should pick this up again tomorrow,” she suggested. “You've been on your feet all day and you could use some sleep.”

“Maya, what did I say earlier?” the blonde doctor replied testily.

“That... I should call you by your name, Ritsuko-senpai?”

Ritsuko sighed and gave up. She had twisted her ankle only an hour after leaving the beach where all four of them had arrived, heels not being remotely appropriate footwear for navigating rubble, and they were all tired after walking across the ruined city. She began to stand up, but Maya gently pushed her back down.

Misato left to bring out a spare futon, and after some more fussing Ritsuko curled up under the blanket, slowly nodding off. Makoto and Shigeru left the apartment, dragging a reluctant Maya with them, to bed down next door. Misato promised the female technician to keep an eye on Ritsuko.

When the door was dragged closed behind the trio, Asuka stuck her head out from her room. After checking to make sure that Shinji had not woken up because of the noise, she had gone back to her room and quickly fallen asleep. But something had disturbed her slumber.

The major waved goodnight to her as she went to bed, and Asuka slowly returned to her own bed. It was not the noise of the departing NERV personnel that had awoken her, but rather what had been waiting for her when she had closed her eyes.

The nightmares were starting to return.

They had been temporarily driven off several times before in the young girl's life, but they always came back just as she was starting to think they were gone for good. And now, because of the events of the Angel War and Third Impact, there was new material for her dreams to use against her.

Just a few minutes ago, it had been the mission against the Angel found inside Mount Asama. All had gone as it had before, but when her cable snapped, there was nobody hanging from the other end to grab her. No Unit-01, no Third Child diving after her without protection; she had simply sunk deeper into the volcano until her Evangelion imploded and she had woken up drenched in sweat.

Asuka had always avoided speaking of her bad dreams, believing that it would be a sign of weakness. Instead she simply tried to bury them in the back of her mind and pretend she was just grouchy over getting up early.

After an hour spent tossing and turning, Asuka finally got up to get a drink of water. She walked back to her own room, but the sound of her own name being muttered almost physically dragged her into Shinji's room, where the boy was twitching and moaning in his sleep.

She was obviously not the only one being chased by demons in her dreams.

“ _Gott_ ,” she whispered. “I'll bet even your nightmares are stronger than mine...”

Shinji was now reaching out for something in front of him, and Asuka found her eyes focusing on the feebly waving hand, the memory of last night resurfacing. Her right hand snapped out and grabbed his, and it was almost crushed in Shinji's grip. The boy's twitches settled down immediately, and Asuka felt something surprisingly familiar in their physical contact.

It was the same feeling that had washed over her when Shinji had rescued her from the volcano. Even through the communications window, Asuka had found something shocking in those blue eyes: determination.

Shinji would _not_ let her fall.

Asuka didn't know how long it took, but Shinji finally relaxed his grip enough for the girl to slip her now-aching hand out. She felt a little regretful at the sudden loss of contact, but her drooping eyes convinced her to return to her own bed.

She finally fell asleep once more, and was assaulted by the same dream. This time however, a massive purple fist shot out of the red murk and latched onto her flailing hand with what was now an incredibly familiar sensation. Through her mental link to Unit-02, she felt the bones in her hand creak under the pressure of Shinji's iron grip.

The redhead smiled in her sleep, clenching her right fist to her chest as if it were holding something precious.

In the room across the hall, Shinji perfectly mirrored her gesture.

* * *

The morning saw Asuka rudely awoken once more, this time by voices loudly raised in argument. When she finally rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up, she started to make out what was being said.

“-dangerous with Shinji in this state. How are we going to get him down a ladder?”

“We'll have to think of something. I don't have a chance of treating him up here. The general hospital is a pile of rubble, so we need the medical facilities in the Geofront. Our only other option is to travel to Tokyo-2 and hope _their_ power generator is still working _and_ that they have the right equipment.”

That was definitely Misato and Doctor Akagi speaking. Asuka wondered what was so wrong with Shinji that they needed the highly advanced NERV medical ward for as she got out of bed and started getting dressed.

“What makes you think NERV's generators are functioning?”

“The fusion generators are hardened against physical damage almost as much as the MAGI.”

The clock beside her bed told Asuka that it was nearly ten-thirty. The two women seemed to have been debating for a while. She walked out into the hallway and almost into Misato and Ritsuko, who were standing right outside her door. The blonde woman was upright, but obviously favouring one side over the other.

“Even with everything that happened to the Geofront during Third Impact, I can guarantee the- oh, good morning Asuka.”

“Mornin',” Asuka muttered in reply. “What were you just talking about? Does it have something to do with the fact that there's an immense hole in the ground where there should only be one about a kilometre wide?”

Ritsuko paused for a moment as she stared at the girl. “...Ah, yes,” she finally said. “You two weren't... alive when Third Impact started. Long story incredibly short, the entire Geofront was pulled out of the ground and used by Lilith. If you weren't simply imagining things and the Geofront is back where it used to be, then the infrastructure should still be mostly intact.”

“I really doubt that both of us imagined the exact same thing. The Geofront is there... and we have a great deal to talk about, Rits,” Misato glared at her friend. “There were too many secrets kept from us that we needed to know.”

“And with good reason. For now though, we should work out what to do with Shinji.”

Asuka perked up at the mention of her fellow pilot. “Don't tell me there's something else wrong with him now!” she exclaimed.

Instead of replying, Ritsuko merely tilted her head in the direction of the Third Child's bedroom and limped back into the lounge. Misato threw an apologetic look at Asuka before following her.

Asuka _had_ woken up feeling better than she had in years after the nightmare had been banished, but now a feeling of dread was settling over her like a heavy cloak. Crossing the threshold into his room felt like one of the toughest things Asuka had ever done. She had to force herself through the doorway. The girl had woken up expecting Shinji to be awake as well, and as she reached the bed she saw that she had at least been partially right.

Shinji was certainly awake, his open eyes were a clear sign. He was staring unblinkingly upwards, however, and even the appearance of Asuka next to his bed seemed to go unnoticed. A hand waved in front of his eyes elicited no reaction, not even a reflexive flutter of eyelids.

His eyes were just as empty as they had been on the beach, if not more so. The dead stare bored straight through Asuka as she leaned over him. Asuka groaned in dismay and rubbed her face as she stood back up.

“Alright, Doctor Genius, what's wrong with the idiot?” she demanded as she stepped into the lounge room. The technicians had arrived while she was in Shinji's room, and the adults were now eating breakfast and debating how to get into the Geofront.

“Until I have access to medical equipment,” Ritsuko replied, “the best I can determine is that Shinji is in a form of catatonia. I'll need to examine his head injury as well as his brain waves to get a better idea.”

“ _Scheiße,_ and here I was hoping he'd be fine after last night,” Asuka grumbled to herself. She spoke a little too loud however, and Misato blinked at her.

“Last night? What happened last night? You didn't climb into bed with him did you?” she asked with a smirk.

“Misato!” Asuka and Ritsuko both yelled at the same time, causing the major to start cackling. Ritsuko continued. “That's incredibly inappropriate for children their age! Especially with the state Shinji is in!”

Her cheeks now starting to redden, Asuka glared daggers at Misato. “It was nothing like that, you old pervert! I was just getting some water when I heard him having a nightmare.” She explained what happened last night, leaving out the part about having a nightmare herself, which made Misato shut up.

“Is it anything like... like what happened to me after Second Impact?” Misato asked with a small shudder. She could only hope that Shinji would recover far quicker than the two years it had taken her.

“Worse, I'm afraid,” Ritsuko shook her head. “You were simply mute and withdrawn, but you still responded somewhat to outside stimuli. Shinji, on the other hand, isn't reacting to _anything_.” The doctor turned to Asuka. “We can't even get him to stand up. Shinji simply collapses like a puppet that had its strings cut.”

That explained the argument that woke her up. Asuka furrowed her brow in thought. “So we need to carry him. Could we find or make a harness?” she asked.

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow and glanced at the technicians. They talked amongst themselves, discussing the emergency entrances. Makoto finally spoke up.

“It's certainly possible,” he answered. “The passages are certainly big enough, to accommodate people carrying wounded. While there would still be ladders in case of power loss, there should also be equipment for carrying people up and down large drops. Including rope and harnesses.”

“Then we head to one of those entrances,” Misato declared. “Where's the nearest one?”

“All of the shelters should have them, to evacuate anyone severely injured during an Angel attack.”

Maya spoke up. “Senpai, isn't there a shelter under the high school?”

Ritsuko snapped her fingers and forgot to admonish the young woman for her slip. “There is. The school is approximately fifteen minutes away so it should have survived the assault mostly intact, and the shelter would be fine this far away from the epicentre.”

Shigeru raised a hand. “Uh, what about the tunnels? What are we going to do if they're blocked by debris?”

All the women in the room turned to stare at the male technicians, who shrank under their collective gaze before sighing in defeat. Asuka smirked at their response before running back to Shinji's room.

The bandage on his forehead made Asuka pray that it wasn't a permanent brain injury causing Shinji's current state. It looked as if something, possibly falling rubble, had smacked the boy in the head shortly before he had been found. The injury to his hand was just as mysterious. The swelling had died down a little, but the bones were still clearly out of place.

_'Looks like I'll be carrying you some more,_ Dummkopf,' Asuka mused. ' _You're going to owe me so many German dinners after all this.'_ The trip to the Geofront would likely be more taxing to the redhead than their trip home from the crater, but she wasn't going to hand the task off to anybody else, not even Misato. For the life of her, she couldn't work out _why_ she should be the only one to haul him around.

“Alright, Shinji,” she said, speaking more to herself than the prone figure as she spread her arms and prepared to pick him up. “Get up, it's time to go.”

Asuka squawked in alarm and jerked backwards as Shinji suddenly sat up and got out of bed, halting in front of the surprised girl.

“Everything okay down there, Asuka?” Maya called down the hallway.

“Y-yeah, I'm fine,” Asuka stuttered as she stared at Shinji, who was standing as he always used to. Slightly hunched over, looking downward slightly as if afraid to catch anyone's eye. The same pose that always made Asuka grimace at how passive he looked. If Shinji actually straightened up, he might have been slightly taller than Asuka. Instead, he always seemed to be just slightly shorter than her, like he was afraid of his own physical presence drawing attention away from her.

Putting aside the fact that she would have to stand on tip-toes to be at eye level with him if he ever actually kept his back straight, Asuka looked into Shinji's eyes, hoping for a glint of life. The thousand-yard stare told her that nothing had changed in that department yet.

“Shinji?”

There was no response. Asuka huffed, unsurprised. She snapped her fingers in front of his face to no effect. An idea occurred, but she shook her head to dislodge it. Nothing else came to mind after several minutes, so Asuka did the only thing she could think of.

“Shinji, raise your arm.”

His right arm slowly rose up, stopping when it was level with his shoulders. Asuka swore to herself.

“I don't know what's worse, you being unconscious or you being a freaking robot. A _doll,_ ” she spat. “Put your arm down, you look stupid. Then again that's nothing new...”

Shinji lowered his arm, but had nothing to say on the matter. Asuka spun on her heel and returned to the lounge. Maya was checking her mentor's ankle while the doctor tried ineffectually to shoo her away. Misato and the two male technicians were out on the balcony talking quietly about something Asuka couldn't hear, but she saw Makoto gently squeeze Misato's shoulder as the major started shaking.

“Hey, doctor. How soon do you want to move Shinji?” she asked, crossing her arms and staring at Ritsuko. The woman noticed her posture and grimaced. She knew the reason for the Second Child's animosity towards her, and in the aftermath of Third Impact she felt the guilt of her own actions in bringing it about.

“As soon as possible. Are you ready to carry him?”

Asuka shook her head. “That won't be necessary.” Without bothering to explain herself, she exited the lounge, returning quickly and dragging Shinji. She had yanked on his arm without giving an order, but that seemed to be enough to propel him after her. As soon as the force on his arm ceased, Shinji returned to his hunched state. Ritsuko got to her feet in surprise, to Maya's dismay, and limped over to him.

“Amazing, he's actually mobile! Asuka, what did you do?!” Ritsuko exclaimed.

Asuka rolled her eyes. “I _talked_ to him.”

“I did that as well, but he wouldn't respond.”

“Well I don't know what you were doing wrong, but I told him to get up and he did. He's turned into a robot.”

Ritsuko walked around Shinji, examining his head from every angle. “Interesting. He responds to basic commands but not to familiar voices simply trying to get his attention.” She ran her hands through the boy's hair, searching for any more head wounds, but there were none to be found. She walked back in front of Shinji and cleared her throat.

“Shinji,” she commanded. “Raise your hand.”

Nothing happened, until Asuka rolled her eyes and repeated the order. Shinji's hand flew up as if he were signalling for attention from a school teacher. Ritsuko rubbed her chin as she watched him.

“Strange. He's only responding to you, Asuka. Well, this solves the problem of transporting him at least, but-”

“Shinji, slap her.”

Ritsuko reeled back as the open palm connected with her cheek, her head turned sideways with the force of the blow. Asuka heard Maya gasp behind her and the balcony door open, but paid no attention. She was focused fully on Ritsuko, who was now holding a hand to her cheek and glaring back at the Second Child.

“That,” Asuka hissed dangerously. “was from both of us.”

The anger faded from Ritsuko's face as the words sunk in. She nodded glumly as Asuka left, dragging Shinji behind her as the Children exited the apartment.

Misato finally broke out of her shock and exclaimed, “What the hell was that about?!”

Ritsuko rubbed her cheek, the heat almost burning her hand. “It's... nothing Misato” she replied as she turned away. “But I'm starting to get what I deserve.”

Nobody spoke as they loaded up supplies for the journey.

* * *

The major caught up to the two former pilots at the bottom of the stairs. Asuka was sitting against a wall muttering to herself and occasionally glancing sidelong at Shinji, who was staring blankly at the same wall. It had been a little tricky for Asuka to get him to safely descend, as he originally ignored the steps completely. Only Asuka's quick reflexes had prevented him from tumbling down the stairwell.

“So... Shinji's mobile, sort of,” Misato remarked as she sat down beside the Second Child.

Asuka grunted in response. “Mmm.”

“And one of the first things you did was make him slap Doctor Akagi.”

“Mmm.”

Misato sighed. “Do you want to talk about _why_ you made him do that?”

“Not right now...” Asuka mumbled. “She knows what she did anyway.”

The sound of footsteps echoing in the stairwell ended their conversation. Makoto and Shigeru reached the ground floor first, followed shortly after by Ritsuko and Maya. Ritsuko had, figuratively, put her foot down about using Maya as a crutch any longer. While her ankle still ached, she pronounced herself fit enough to make the journey under her own power.

“Let's go. We can't afford to waste any more time,” Ritsuko declared. Asuka got to her feet and brushed herself off, before gripping Shinji's arm and tugging him along after her as the group set off for the school.

The trip was made in almost complete silence. Everyone was either staring directly ahead or downcast while the oppressive quiet of a dead city seemed to press in on the group. Nobody felt like making any more noise than absolutely necessary, not even a quiet clearing of the throat.

It was only when they reached the Tokyo-3 First Municipal High School and stepped inside the main entrance that the silence was quietly broken. Because the school was the only one for the entire city, it was much larger than it would have needed to be elsewhere. Misato took charge, splitting them into three groups to search for the entrance to the emergency shelter.

Despite her assignment, Asuka wandered up to the second floor of the school. Shinji seemed to have little trouble traversing stairs this time, so Asuka was able to move much quicker and was soon in front of the entrance to Class 2-A.

Asuka let go of Shinji's arm and slowly walked to her desk, collapsing into the school chair. The room was almost exactly as it looked the last time the Children had been to school. Only a large crack in one of the windows gave any indication of what had happened to the rest of the city. She let her mind drift backwards through time to a point where the class was full.

_'Funny... I complained all the time about not needing to go to school, and yet if I had gotten my way, I wouldn't have become friends with Hikari. Mayako was a nice girl too, but hanging around that stuck-up bitch Chihiro wasn't doing her any favours...'_

She raised her head and looked towards where Shinji once sat, only to find him _actually_ sitting there. While Asuka couldn't see his face from her angle, he was sitting in the same pose he always used to while at school. Leaning on the desk, head resting on an upraised hand and staring either out the window or at the back of Ayanami's head.

It was a mystery to her why Shinji always did that. He was the one that needed an education most, yet he seemed to spend an abnormal amount of time staring at nothing. At least he never missed out on his homework though, unless piloting got in the way, but even then Shinji found a way to quickly catch up. It must have been why he spent so much time in his room.

_"Asuka."_

Asuka nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice intruding on her thoughts. Her eyes darted around the room for a moment, before she realised that it came from from her radio. She patted herself for a moment before locating the radio and bringing it up to her mouth.

“I'm here, Misato. Did you find the entrance?”

“ _Affirmative. We're going to take a lunch break in the canteen before we go underground. We need to see if we can get Shinji to eat something. You dragged him out of the house before we could try and give him some breakfast.”_

“Oh... whoops. Alright, I'm on my way.”

Asuka clipped the radio back onto her pants as she rose to her feet. She slung her bag back on her shoulder and walked to the front of Shinji's desk, bending over to look into his eyes. They were still blank, but moving slightly.

“Daydreaming as well, huh? Hope it's something nice this time,” she said, half to herself. “Well no time for that, let's go have lunch.”

She gently pulled Shinji out of his seat and towards the door. As she reached the entrance, Asuka stopped for a moment and looked back at her desk. After telling him to wait, the girl ran back to her desk and lifted the lid. A small box was retrieved from within and was cradled in her hands for a moment as she smiled slightly at the back of Shinji's head. It was then stuffed into the bottom of her pack, and Asuka once more took hold of Shinji's arm and led him towards the cafeteria.

When she arrived, the rest of the group looked up and nodded a greeting to her. The redhead guided Shinji to a spot next to Misato, before sitting down on the other side of him. Lunch was produced from Shigeru's bag and handed out, and the rest of them tucked in while Asuka stared at Shinji's portion, trying to work out how best to actually feed him.

Before leaving the apartment, Maya had gone through their small stockpile of food and found a large amount of dried soup mix. This had been quickly cooked up and doled out into bento boxes.

_'Well, can't hurt to try,'_ she thought before placing it in front of him and saying, “Shinji, eat this.”

For a moment it looked like Shinji had not heard her, but then his head tilted down towards the bento. Instead of picking up the spoon next to it, he simply dunked his fingers into the warm broth. Asuka had to yank Shinji's hand out of the soup, lightly spattering her own face with the liquid. Someone handed her some tissues, which she used to wipe her face and his fingers before she shoved the spoon into Shinji's hand.

This time, the boy seemed to know what to do, and slowly brought a spoonful of soup up to his mouth. Asuka watched him closely for a moment, then turned to her own lunch, satisfied that he was now eating.

“Keep an eye on him,” Ritsuko warned. “If he hasn't eaten anything in a long time, his stomach will have shrunk. Don't let him have too much at once.”

The warning was mostly unnecessary. Shinji ceased his robotic arm movement after only consuming about two-thirds of his meal. A little while later, everyone had finished their meals and packed up. Maya retrieved Shinji's bento and sealed it, before taking a close look at his face.

“He may not have eaten a lot, but he's already looking much better,” she remarked happily.

Asuka glanced sideways at him as they left the canteen, and silently agreed with the young woman. Colour was slowly seeping into Shinji's face, which had been rather pale ever since his rescue.

They headed towards the steel doors barring the entrance to the school's emergency shelter and stopped in front of them. While Shigeru and Makoto got to work pulling the doors open, Ritsuko turned to face the group.

“I hope you haven't left anything behind, we might not be coming back up here for a while,” she said. “If we're out of luck, it's going be a long trip from here to NERV's medical wing.”

Asuka patted her backpack where the box from her desk was now stashed. She had everything she needed for now. The doors finally opened, accompanied by the sound of protesting mechanisms. Misato flicked on her flashlight and took the lead into the darkness beyond.

* * *

Locating the entrance to the tunnel was no easy feat. When asked why it was so difficult to find, Ritsuko claimed that it was a layer of security to prevent civilians attempting to sneak into the Geofront. Normally the only way it could be opened was from a terminal inside NERV but it was possible, though difficult, to open it manually. The light rail in the tunnel had been created to quickly transport the Children to NERV in case of a sudden Angel attack during school hours that rendered surface travel dangerous.

“You could have told us about it _before_ we had to traipse through the tunnels when the Ninth Angel attacked,” Asuka grumbled as she walked into the dark passage.

“It would have done you no good anyway, Asuka,” Ritsuko said.

“Why the hell not?”

“Do you want the short version or the boring version?”

“Short, _please_.”

“Bureaucracy,” Ritsuko sighed. “Funding got prioritised elsewhere during the final stages of construction, because none of the Angels up to that point had presented the appropriate risk to warrant completion.”

That attitude had changed after the Ninth Angel attack and the shock that had come with the entire city being reliant on a single power source that had so easily been subverted. The Japanese government had complained loudly and pointedly enough about NERV's 'failure' that plans were made to construct redundant power systems to prevent such an occurrence again.

The railcar standing in front of them was a product of one of the systems. Originally the emergency light rail would have been powered by NERV's generators like everything else, but as Shigeru and Makoto inspected the car, they showed Asuka what they were suddenly so happy about when she came over to look. The internal battery for the car was still partially charged, hopefully enough to get them to the Geofront.

“We'll have to take it easy though,” Makoto warned, shutting the panel and standing up. “I don't think we would make it all the way if we pushed this thing to its maximum speed, especially with all of us on board.”

Misato stepped into the car and sat down. “Then we'll just have to travel at a scenic pace. We'll still get there much faster than walking, and at least we won't be worn out when we get there.”

With the rest of the group inside the small tram, space was rather limited. By unspoken agreement, the two Children got to sit down while the male technicians remained standing.

Makoto initiated the car's startup sequence, and the entire tram held its breath as nothing happened for a moment. After several anxious seconds the lights in the compartment came on, and everyone let out a sigh of relief as the car started rolling along the track.

“Kill the lights, even the headlamp,” Ritsuko ordered. “We'll rely on our own to see ahead. Don't take us above ten kilometres an hour. There is likely to be damaged track close to the Geofront, and we don't want to derail.”

A heavy duty flashlight was placed on the console pointing out the front windscreen. While it wasn't nearly as powerful as the railcar's headlamp, it lit the tunnel sufficiently to allow Makoto to watch ahead for any hazards on the track at their slow speed.

He announced that the journey would take approximately an hour, and Asuka replied with a yawn.

“Fine, I'm going to have a nap,” she said. “Wake me when there's something interesting to look at.”

With that, she wriggled around on the back seat of the tram, attempting to get comfortable. Shinji was almost sitting in her lap with the little space available. Eventually she found a position that was at least tolerable and closed her eyes.

Ten minutes later, Misato glanced over at her and stifled a giggle. She tapped Maya on the shoulder and pointed towards Asuka. The technician took one look and had to cover her mouth as well.

“There's something interesting to look at,” Misato whispered. “Should we wake her up?”

Maya playfully slapped at Misato to get her to be quiet. The two of them spent a few minutes looking at the sight at the other end of the tram, and Misato silently wished that she still had her camera.

The motion of the railcar had jostled Asuka, and her head was now on Shinji's shoulder. It had also apparently lulled the boy to sleep as well, and his head was resting on Asuka's.

* * *

_The Third Child had been acting strangely the last couple of days. Asuka had spotted him attempting to sneak into the apartment with a bag of groceries, despite the fact that the fridge was nearly full. When questioned, Shinji had spouted nonsense for a minute before retreating to his room after putting the food in the fridge. Asuka had merely rolled her eyes and returned to her video game._

_This morning, the rather unusual stench of burnt eggs forced Asuka out of her slumber, and not just because of the smell. Shinji **never** messed up while cooking, it was practically an unwritten law of the house. Misato drank like a fish, Asuka took her time in the shower, Pen-Pen... was Pen-Pen, and Shinji never burnt food._

_The rude awakening had Asuka storming out of her bedroom to confront him on this blunder._

_"That better not have been my breakfast,_ D ummkopf _!" she snarled as she came to a stop in front of the startled boy._

  
_"Um... n-no, it wasn't," Shinji eventually managed to stammer out, shrinking back from the angry German's gaze. "Y-yours is already on the table, I was about to wake you up."_

_"Hmph. Well your cooking certainly accomplished that, even if it wasn't in your usual manner."_

_The boy had nothing to say to that, and turned back to the frying pan and the charred mess it contained. He sighed and dumped the contents in the trash before starting a fresh batch of eggs. As he did so, Asuka noticed a bandage around his palm._

_"So you burned yourself as well as your breakfast, huh?"_

_Shinji looked down at his hand after cracking the eggs, and nodded. "Y-yeah, Pen-Pen woke up and was rather... insistent on being fed." Shinji's left foot began to rub his right shin, where the bird had obviously gotten in a rather nasty peck. "I got distracted and touched the frying pan. That's the reason my eggs burned, I was in the bathroom."_

_He began to laugh nervously, and Asuka took that as a cue to sit down and ignore him while eating her breakfast. She therefore missed the small sigh of relief from the direction of the stove._

* * *

_Once again the teacher was droning on about Second Impact. The old man never seemed to realise that he repeated himself constantly, but not even the class representative seemed inclined to bring it to his attention. Shinji was in his usual seat nearby, staring aimlessly out the window. Or perhaps he was staring at the First Child again, it was hard to tell sometimes._

_It was just another slow, hot, lazy day to Asuka. She had still learnt absolutely nothing new while at school in Tokyo-3, and spent most of the time either trying to nap or chatting to the other girls in the class through her laptop. This time however, her usual chat-mates were either trying to sleep themselves, or actually doing work. Asuka was bored out of her mind, but didn't feel like joining them in either activity. She looked back towards the left side of the room, then opened a new chat window and typed out a quick message before hitting 'enter'._

_Just ahead of her, Shinji nearly jumped out of his seat when the message alert quietly pinged at him. A tiny smirk grew on Asuka's face at his reaction, but she quickly blanked her face and looked intently at her screen as Shinji turned around in his chair to glance at the redhead. After a few seconds he turned back to his laptop and slowly typed a reply._

_**A_Soryu: Hey idiot, what are you staring at, the sun or Wondergirl?** _

_**S_Ikari: Both, I guess. Rei stares out the window every day, and she always looks so... depressed, I suppose. I wonder if she's actually looking at something.** _

_**A_Soryu: She probably just switches her brain off until it's time to go. Not like she bothers using it while we're at school. Or ever.** _

_**S_Ikari: Asuka, that's not very nice.** _

_Asuka muttered in German under her breath as the Third Child once again leapt to defend Rei. His evasive manner in the last few days also seemed to be affecting his typing speed. It was taking him nearly a minute to respond each time. She could see out of the corner of her eye that Shinji would tap away on the keyboard, then hurriedly delete whatever he had written several times. The last comment had arrived almost instantly though._

_**A_Soryu: Wondergirl wouldn't give a damn if I said that right to her face. Whatever. Hey, what are you making for dinner tonight? It better not be yet another rice dish, I'm getting really sick of them.** _

_**S_Ikari: Well, I was going to make donburi, but I guess I could do chicken teriyaki instead if you're okay with that.** _

_**A_Soryu: Fine, but if I see even a hint of rice you'll be wearing it.** _

_**S_Ikari: Yes, Asuka. There won't be any rice tonight.** _

_Neither of them had anything more to say to each other, so they closed the chatroom. Asuka yawned and let her head drop to her desk with a faint thud. Before she knew it, the lunch bell was ringing._

_The class began to file out of the room. Asuka strode over to Shinji's desk and put her hands on her hips._

“ _It's lunchtime, idiot, so where's mine?” she demanded._

_Shinji fumbled around inside his bag as he stood up, avoiding eye contact with the hungry German girl. His hand shakily produced a bento box and placed it on his desk. Before Asuka could swipe it, Shinji was running for the door when he tripped over a chair and fell down. He hit the ground hard, but quickly got up and resumed his escape._

“ _Asuka, what did you say to him this time?” Hikari asked as she walked up besides the stunned girl._

“ _W-what? Me?! All I did was ask for my lunch!”_

“ _...Oh.” The class representative looked towards the door. “He ran out of here like there was an Angel attack, but I didn't hear your phones ring.”_

_Asuka shook her head exasperatedly. “They didn't. The idiot face-planted for no reason.”_

_Hikari walked towards the door, but stopped at the fallen chair. She picked it back up, and gasped at a small bloodstain on the ground. A line of tiny red droplets went out the door. Asuka halted next to her and rolled her eyes as she too spotted the trail. “Ouch. He'll be feeling that for a while.”_

_A tardy student was stopped by Hikari and ordered to clean up the mess before someone else got hurt. The boy grumbled his displeasure as the two girls left the classroom._

_The canteen was a riot of noise as usual. Asuka and Hikari picked their way through the crowded room to a table where a couple of their friends were already seated. They greeted each other, and placed their bentos on the table._

“ _So what did Shinji make for you today, Asuka?” Hikari asked. “I'm tempted to ask him for some tips one of these days. I'm not ashamed to admit that I could learn something from him when it comes to cooking.”_

_Asuka looked down at her bento and frowned. “No idea, he already made them before I got up this morning. I swear, if it's rice again I'll-”_

_She opened it as she spoke and the heavenly, **familiar** aroma that filled her nostrils froze the words in her mouth._

* * *

A gentle shaking of her shoulder woke Asuka. She jerked up, instantly alert, but relaxed when the calm face of Maya manifested in her vision. She rubbed her head, smoothing out her hair slightly at the same time, and looked around. The car was stopped, and empty apart from the Children and Maya.

“We've arrived... mostly,” the technician said by way of explanation before exiting the car.

Ahead, the bright glow at the end of the tunnel was almost blinding to Asuka eyes. When her eyes adjusted, she managed to make out a twisted jumble of metal and earth partially blocking the exit. The other adults were standing in front of it, talking to each other in low voices.

Asuka blearily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and her hand encountered some wetness on her chin. She wiped it away with her sleeve and stood up. The seat had not remained comfortable for long, and the aches in her back made themselves known as the girl stretched in the limited space.

Shinji was still asleep, now almost falling over as his headrest had moved. Asuka tried to ignore the dark stain on his shoulder as she carefully picked him up and made her way out of the tram towards the tunnel exit.


	9. Chapter 9

“Even after everything that's happened here, the Geofront never ceases to amaze me with its beauty.”

As Asuka gingerly carried Shinji over the gnarled and twisted metal of the light rail tracks, even she had to agree with Maya's remark.

When the Geofront had originally been created, every effort had apparently been made to create a scenic piece of the surface over a kilometre underground. A lake had been dug, while trees, plants, and even wildlife had been transplanted into the Geofront. Asuka felt her spirits lift at the sight of nature as she gently deposited Shinji under the shade of a tree on the hill nearby, before sitting down next to him.

The chirping of birds was something none of the group had heard since before Third Impact. Any wild creatures near Tokyo-3 had either been outright killed by the JSSDF's N2 mine, or had been driven away. Deep below the surface however, the animals had nowhere to run and could only cowered in their dens as the end of the world happened all around them. Now they had emerged from their hiding places, unaware of what had transpired.

Leaning back against the tree, Asuka looked down at the sleeping face of Shinji.

_'Even when he's asleep, he doesn't look peaceful,'_ she thought as the boy's face twitched slightly. She brushed some hair out of his eyes, before holding the lock of hair up and noting how long and dirty Shinji's hair was. Asuka's cheeks reddened slightly at the thought that he really needed a bath. She prayed that  _that_ was something Shinji could do himself.

The sound of feet moving through grass drew her attention away from the boy. Shigeru was walking towards the pair with his hands in his pockets, looking for all the world like a man going for a leisurely stroll in the woods.

“Beautiful, isn't it?” he remarked as he stopped near them. “I used to relax at a place like this whenever I had time to spare. I'd strum on my guitar, look out across the Geofront, and for a moment I could pretend that the world wasn't going to shit.”

Asuka said nothing. She withdrew a bottle of water from her backpack and handed it to the man, grabbing one for herself as well. Shigeru nodded his thanks. He tilted his head back and drained half of the bottle at once, letting out a satisfied sigh.

“The others are off seeing if they can scrounge up a working vehicle to take us the rest of the way,” he continued. “I thought they could use a little time alone.” At Asuka's raised eyebrow, he continued. “Makoto's held a torch for the major for a while. Always picking up her laundry and such whenever she asked.”  
  
“What about Kaji?” Asuka mumbled, not really interested but paying attention out of politeness, and possibly boredom.

“Oh, Makoto knew about Kaji and Misato. He was quick to step out of the way when it was clear they were restarting their relationship. Maybe he thinks he has a chance now. It won't work though, Misato's got too much to deal with to worry about something like that right now.” Shigeru chuckled sadly. “Poor sap.”

The two of them fell silent for a while, and listened to the forest. Asuka's hand dipped into her bag again, withdrawing the object she had retrieved from her desk and idly twirling it in her hand. A narrow black bento box.

Shigeru spoke up after a moment of watching the girl. “You know, if you're hungry Maya's still got some soup left over.”

“That's fine, I'm just remembering a meal I once had,” Asuka said, eyes focused on the box.

“Oh... um... a good meal I take it?”

Asuka voice rose slightly in anger. “It was the best damned meal I had in over ten years and I have no idea how the hell he did it.”

Shigeru rubbed the back of his head as he tried to formulate a response. Asuka went on before he could come up with one.

“I mean, he's not even German! How the hell does someone suddenly cook something new and get it so bloody _right_?! He only ever did Japanese meals before this. Was he sneaking out and doing night courses in German cuisine?”

“Uh-”  
  
“Did Misato help him?” Asuka interrupted. “No wait, that's stupid. She can't even boil water properly.”

“Help who?” Shigeru finally managed to say. A confused look crossed Asuka's face as she lost momentum and turned to face Shigeru, as if only just realising the man was still there.

“What? Oh... right. Shinji made this bento for me. He did all our meals back at the apartment, and no matter what he cooked, it was wonderful.” She didn't know why she was talking so freely to someone who was very nearly a stranger, but she continued regardless. “The lunch he gave me in this bento? It was two kinds of German sausage and potato salad, along with pickled cabbage and beets.”

Asuka had only eaten a meal that... _wonderful_ once before, back in Germany. Her mother had still been alive then. She would always remember that day as one of the best ever. Kyoko had always applied herself fully to whatever she worked on, and cooking was no exception. The dinner had been sublime, and she had even surprised a young Asuka with her very first Black Forest cake for dessert. 

After her mother's death, Asuka had constantly tried to get that meal again, whether from going out to eat or making it herself, just to try and get a taste of a better time; every attempt always falling far short of her expectations. As her pilot training got more intense, she was forced to abandon any further efforts.

But then Shinji had come along, and given her what she had failed to find for so long on his first attempt. The meal had tasted just as she remembered. The only reason Asuka hadn't thanked Shinji for the meal was because she knew that she would have started yelling at the boy, demanding to know his secret.

Shinji had likely believed that Asuka had thrown the entire meal away, judging by the look on his bruised face when she had seen him again at the end of the lunch period. For several days afterwards, Asuka had kept the box in her bag, occasionally sneaking it out to sniff at it and remember the wonderful meal, until she eventually had to wash the container out in the bathroom at school. The box had then been stashed in her desk and forgotten about until today.

“How? How did he do it?” Asuka asked as she finished. Shigeru shrugged helplessly at the question. She bent over Shinji and cradled his head, staring into his closed eyes as if she could find the answer in his face.

“Because Shinji put his heart and soul into his cooking,” came a voice from behind. “If you had paid any attention to him when he was making dinner, you would have realised that.”

Misato was standing on the other side of the tree when Asuka looked around. At the base of the hill, Makoto stood next to a battered JSSDF jeep. Ritsuko and Maya were already climbing in.

Asuka barely stopped herself from simply letting go of Shinji as her cheeks lit up. “Um, Misato? How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough. Now let's go,” Misato said. “We've got transport again, so we'll get to NERV HQ in no time.” She turned around and walked down the hill.

“Sheesh, I don't know what came over me,” Asuka remarked to Shigeru as she picked up Shinji. “Talking like that to someone I barely know.”

“It's no problem, Asuka. Sometimes it's easier to speak to a stranger about something you can't tell a friend.”

_'Once this is over,'_ the girl decided as they headed towards the jeep. ' _The first thing I'm going to do is thank Shinji for the meal.'_

It was a tight fit in the vehicle with seven people. Maya ended up sitting on Ritsuko's lap, something neither of them seemed quick to complain about, and the two Children shared a seatbelt. Misato was driving, so Asuka was taking no chances.

Nobody noticed the slender arm curled protectively around Shinji's midsection.

* * *

The massive hole above them showed that it was late afternoon. There was actually so little of the Geofront roof left that Asuka idly thought that it no longer deserved to be _called_ a roof. She remembered that there was supposedly an array of mirrors that redirected natural sunlight down to the Geofront. Now it seemed like they would no longer be needed.

The vehicle they were in had been knocked around during the Geofront battle. It coughed and sputtered, and Misato kept having to wrestle the vehicle back into a straight line, but it was faster than walking

It was  about the time that the jeep was manoeuvring around the wreckage of the NERV pyramid when Asuka finally noticed that Shinji had woken up. There had been no physical movement to alert her, his eyes had simply been closed one moment and open the next. It was as if a button had been pressed to switch him on. Asuka shivered slightly as she recalled the 'robot' comment made much earlier.

She didn't remove the arm from around his waist, however.

Maya was quietly explaining to Misato what had happened to cause the pyramid to explode. The major's hands tightened on the steering wheel and her face was an unreadable mask as she forced the jeep to change direction, heading towards an alternate entrance to NERV.

Ritsuko hugged the female technician a little closer as a few tears began running down Maya's face. The last moments of the battle between NERV and SEELE had been truly horrifying, and Asuka turned to stare out the window, fighting to keep the memory of her own death at bay.

This was helped somewhat by the JSSDF wreckage. While there was no sign of her final battle, the shattered husks of the army's attempt to stop her still remained. She smirked a little as a piece of the destroyer that had once been in the lake appeared. The mystery of how the ship made it down to the Geofront lake had died with it.

Another distraction quickly showed itself as the jeep pulled up to a cargo door, just as the engine  gave up the ghost . It was simply too large to open manually, but  thankfully  the side entrance next to it was wide open. The group got out of the vehicle and went inside, stopping suddenly as their flashlights revealed what lay beyond.

Old blood coated the walls, floor, and even the ceiling in some places. Weapons laid wherever they had been dropped when the soldiers had been swept up. There were no bodies, but that small concession was not enough to stop Maya burying her face in Ritsuko's chest and crying openly. The doctor quickly walked her past the grisly scene as the others followed, pale looks on all their faces.

Misato appeared to be the most affected by the carnage in the hallways. She abruptly stopped in front of one corridor, before shaking and slapping a hand over her mouth. Makoto quickly rushed to her side, but Misato batted away the arm reaching for her before running off down the corridor. Undeterred, Makoto rushed after her, leaving the others behind.

While Ritsuko and Maya continued on, Shigeru and Asuka looked at each other in confusion. Shigeru opened his mouth to speak, but closed it and wrinkled his nose. He raised one hand and tapped his nose, then pointed down the corridor Misato had stopped at. As Asuka drew closer to the corridor, a sickly scent greeted her nostrils.

Despite the absence of bodies, the loss of power meant that the ventilation system had shut down, and this far away from fresh air meant the smell had nowhere to go. Asuka suddenly felt sick, and not entirely because of the stench.

Burnt flesh.

Oh.

And she had joked the previous day about Misato wanting a _flamethrower_. Asuka felt like slapping herself.

“I see...” Shigeru calmly stated as Asuka told him this. “You couldn't have known, so don't beat yourself up. Just apologise to her; she'll understand.”

They quickly caught up to the rest of the group outside a bathroom, where the sounds of retching could be heard. Makoto was gently rubbing Misato's back as the major sat hunched over in a stall. She eventually managed to climb to her feet and stumble to a sink, where she washed her mouth out and splashed water on her face.

“I'm okay now,” she panted, wiping her mouth and walking out into the corridor. “How close are we to the medical wing?”

“We're about ten minutes away,” replied Ritsuko as she analysed a map on the wall nearby. “But we need to get the generators running first.” In her arms, Maya had recovered somewhat once they were past the worst of the attack, but was still unwilling to let go.

“Asuka and I will head to the medical wing,” Misato said. “There's no point dragging Shinji all the way over to the generators and back, and you don't need whatever little help we could offer.”

Ritsuko inclined her head slightly. “Then I'll take the others with me and we can restart the fusion reactors. Our radios most likely won't work down here, but once we have power again we'll be able to re-establish communication. It should take us approximately half an hour to reach the generator room and get the power running again.”  
  
“What about the MAGI?”

“We'll have to do that later. It's going to take quite a while to boot them up, and Maya and I will need to monitor them for any problems.” She glanced at Shinji before continuing. “For now though, he comes first. Wait for us in the lobby, I'll contact you there via the reception desk phone.”

Misato nodded and left with Asuka and Shinji in tow. They reached the medical wing, and sat down on a couch in the lobby. Asuka squirmed in her seat for a moment, before turning to face Misato.

“Um, Misato?” The woman made a questioning noise, and Asuka looked back down at her hands in her lap. “I... I'm sorry for what I said yesterday.”

For a moment, Misato looked as if she were unsure of what the girl was referring to, before realisation dawned.

“Oh. _Oh._ No, no no.” She scooted across the couch and wrapped an arm around Asuka's shoulders. “Don't try and blame yourself for that, Asuka. There was no way you could have known what I went through.”

The girl looked up at her guardian and saw the grimace on Misato's face. “The long-haired guy said the same thing.”

“Well, as you could see, the fighting down here was brutal. The JSSDF were under orders to kill _everyone_ , regardless of whether they surrendered or not. While I was looking for Shinji, I passed one corridor and-”

Asuka interrupted Misato by forcefully returning the hug. The major's grimace slowly turned into a sad smile, and she gently squeezed Asuka and rested her head on the girl's. The memories of that corridor faded away as the two of them sat like that for a few minutes, drawing comfort from each other, before Misato relaxed her grip.

“So,” she said. “We've got some time now. Do you feel like talking about what happened back at the apartment?”

“I...” Asuka began, before trying to extricate herself from the embrace. Misato's response was to tighten the hug once more. The girl sighed and gave up. “It's... something else my mother told me, that I decided not to mention to you right away. I know you and the doctor are best friends and as much as I hate her, I didn't want to drive you two apart.”

Misato let out a small chuckle. “Trust me Asuka, while I'll still call Rits a friend, we are most definitely _not_ best friends right now. She did a lot of bad things, only some of which I know about. You're afraid that whatever you tell me now will split us up permanently, aren't you?”

Asuka continued to stare at nothing, but gave a small nod. “I may not have liked Wondergirl very much, but Akagi deserves so much more than a slap for-”  
  
“Wait.” Misato pulled away slightly. “Rei? You made Shinji slap Rits because of what she did to Rei?”

The redhead looked up at Misato, confused at her response. “Well... yeah. Mama told me about her role in Rei's upbringing. Not to mention that whole disgusting... clone tank... thing.”  
  


A chuckle turned into a burst of laughter. Misato attempted to stifle it with a hand over her mouth while Asuka's confusion only grew worse.

“Oh man, I shouldn't be laughing at this,” Misato said when she finally got herself under control. “Asuka, you were afraid of telling me something that I _already knew!”_

Asuka blinked stupidly. “What,” was the only thing she could say.

The story of Ritsuko revealing the truth behind the First Child to Misato and Shinji came out. Asuka's confusion became shock, then rage as the woman spoke. Kyoko had only told her daughter the bare minimum of details.

In a burst of anger, she ripped herself away from the couch, and would have run straight out of the lobby if a strong hand hadn't caught her right arm and dragged her back.

“Asuka, stop.” Misato let go. Asuka rubbed her arm and scowled at her. “Sorry. Look, I was just as angry at Rits as you are. But now is not the time to get violent. She won't be able to help Shinji if she's out cold just because you wanted to get some more payback.”

A sigh left the girl's mouth as she took this in, staring at the boy in question. Asuka's fists were itching, but her guardian was right.

“Fine. I won't give the blonde bitch what she deserves. Can I at least give her one more slap for trying to nuke Shinji when he got taken by the Twelfth Angel?”

“No, because I already did that for you.”

“Thanks... I think.”

A few minutes later, the lights above them turned on and bathed the lobby in a welcome glow, bringing with them some much needed fresh air as the ventilation system also started up. As soon as their eyes adjusted, the phone at the reception desk began ringing incessantly. A jubilant Makoto was on the line, informing them that Ritsuko was heading back to the medical wing while the technicians stayed to run diagnostics.

Ritsuko soon arrived, walk ing past them without a word. Asuka got up and dragged Shinji with her, but Misato hung back for a moment, observing something interesting. When Asuka turned back to look questioningly at her, she shook her head and trotted to catch up.

After all, there would be time to tease Asuka about holding Shinji's hand later.

* * *

Misato was glad that the examination room had a window. It gave her something to look at besides her boy on a hospital bed yet again. Although she was capable of administering first aid in the field, there was currently nothing she could do to help Shinji besides stay out of the way.

And wonder if there was a hospital loyalty card that could be stamped for Shinji's _many_ visits.

The few wild animals Misato could see appeared to be utterly unconcerned about the addition of several hundred tons of metal scrap to their habitat. Misato watched as a large bird landed on the tip of a bent turret, before cleaning itself and taking off again.

Asuka, however, refused to move from her place by Shinji's side, to the exasperation of Ritsuko. The angry, distrustful looks were starting to annoy the doctor, but she held her tongue.

On the bed, Shinji stared blankly upward at the ceiling. His complete lack of response to Ritsuko's poking and prodding was unnerving to say the least.

“Alright, my physical examination is complete,” she eventually said “Shinji is malnourished, but we've already started to remedy that. The fingers on his right hand are broken in several places, and since they were apparently broken before you found him, without support they have begun to heal badly. This may be problematic, as I'm not an orthopaedic doctor, but I'll do what I can. Hopefully some people with more specialised medical expertise than me will... return soon.”

She brushed some of Shinji's unkempt hair away from his face. “As for the head wound, his current state is not because of any physical damage there. There are signs of blunt force trauma but the skull is undamaged. Was there any loose rubble nearby when you found Shinji? Something that could have knocked him out by falling on him?”

“No, nothing of the sort,” Asuka said, batting Ritsuko's hand away. The wound had almost completely healed by this point. Only a ragged scar remained. “So if it's not a head injury, what the hell _is_ causing his... catatonia or whatever?”

“I haven't given up on figuring that out yet,” Ritsuko replied as she stepped away from the bed. “We'll need to run some scans to see if there's anything wrong with his head that we can't see from the outside.”

Asuka sarcastically waved an arm towards the door. “Fine, then lead the way, _Frau Doktor.”_

A swift shake of the head from Misato as she turned away from the window was all that stopped Ritsuko from snapping back at the German girl. Instead she sighed and walked out into the hallway, leading them to another room, but stopped in front of the door.

“This will take a couple of hours at least. The tests I am about to perform are extremely delicate,” she announced. “For that reason, I must ask you both to remain outside. I cannot afford any interruptions.”

Misato was fast, clamping a hand over Asuka's mouth before the girl could even begin to protest. “Alright, we'll go to the cafeteria and have something to eat. I'm starting to get a little hungry again anyway.”

“But-” Asuka tried to speak, but Misato's glare silenced her.

“We are _going_ to the _cafeteria_ , Asuka.”

After directing the boy to the bed, Asuka managed to shoot one final plaintive look at Shinji's expressionless face before she was dragged out of the medical wing. Misato didn't let go until they reached the cafeteria, dropping the struggling girl into a chair before sitting in front of her.

“How the hell can you trust her so easily?!” Asuka immediately shouted. “She's part of the reason why Shinji's like that!”

Misato cupped her face in her hands. “I trust her because I have to. Because there's nobody else that we can turn to. I want Shinji back just as badly as you, but I can't do nearly as much as Rits can. I also trust her because I know she wants to make up for what she did. If you can't trust her, Asuka, then trust me.”

There was a soft thud when Asuka's head made contact with the table. She sighed and said, “Alright. If you can still have faith in that bitch after what she's done, then I'll trust you. But if she hurts Shinji any more than she already has...”

“You'll have to beat me to the punch, Asuka. Ritsuko may be my friend, but Shinji...” Misato stopped and took her hands away from her face, revealing a sad smile. “At this point he may as well be my... my _son_ now.”

Asuka made a muffled snorting sound before sitting back upright. “With the way you act, you're more like a big, drunken sister than a mother.”

“Hey now, I haven't touched a drop of alcohol in ages!” Misato lost the smile and mock-glared at Asuka.  
  


“Only because Shinji threw away that swill you call beer.”

The grumbling of their stomachs reminded them of why they had come here. With their mood lifted somewhat, Misato and Asuka began checking the kitchen stores. As expected, there was nothing edible. There was most likely a storeroom somewhere filled with preserved food, but between the maze-like layout of NERV and the Bakelite, it would be difficult for Misato and Asuka to quickly find.

“Guess we'll have to rely on what we brought with us for now,” Misato sighed as they sat back down. “Good thing we brought enough for a couple of days.”

Asuka nodded and began unpacking her bag. A couple cans and water bottles were produced, along with the bento box from her desk. With power restored, it would now be much easier to heat their food up in the kitchen rather than relying on a primitive campfire.

Seeing as Asuka didn't want Misato anywhere near a stove, she decided to heat up the meals herself. When she returned to the table with two steaming bowls of soup, she noticed Misato examining the bento box.

“I guess Shinji managed to make that meal after all,” Misato remarked as she started eating. She looked up and smirked as Asuka started choking on her own mouthful.

“Y-you knew about that?!” Asuka said as soon as she stopped coughing.

“Oh yes, in fact Shinji came to me for some advice.”

“I find that hard to believe, considering it actually came out perfectly.”

Misato slurped up another spoonful of soup before continuing. “Oh, he didn't ask for help on how to cook it. I really shouldn't say anything, though. Shinji swore me to secrecy and I've already blabbed too much. How was it?”

Asuka growled, and didn't respond for a minute, instead focusing on her meal. The story of that day eventually came out to Misato's nod of approval, but she had to mildly rebuke the girl for not thanking Shinji, to which Asuka merely gave a small nod. Suddenly Misato sat upright in her seat and pushed the bento box towards Asuka.

At Asuka's questioning stare, Misato said, “Shinji told me _exactly_ what he was doing for your meal, and there's something missing from what you just told me. You didn't throw anything out did you?”  
  
“Of course not, I ate everything!” Asuka opened the bento box. “There was sausage and potato salad in one section, and pickled cabbage and beets in the other. What could be-”

A strange look passed over Asuka's face as she stopped while holding the lid. She weighed it thoughtfully in her hand for a moment, and then turned it over while ignoring the growing smirk on Misato's face as the woman leaned on her clasped hands.

On the other side, a large piece of tape secured something to the inside of the lid. Asuka pulled the square object out and held it up.

“Well?” Misato prodded. “Go on, see what it is.”

She needn't have bothered speaking. Asuka was tearing the wrapper apart before Misato had gotten two words out of her mouth. The enticingly familiar smell of chocolate pervaded the air around them, to the point that Misato almost began drooling.

Meanwhile, Asuka was staring in awe at the confection in her hand. Once more the Third Child had managed to leave her completely speechless with such a seemingly simple gesture. While it was just a small piece of chocolate, Asuka wouldn't have traded it for the largest block of anything else.

“ _Mein Gott,_ ” she whispered. “How the hell does he do this?”

Somehow, Shinji had known exactly what Belgian chocolate Asuka's mother had given her whenever she was feeling down.

Despite its size, the piece lasted almost half an hour as the redhead savoured every last bite. She attempted to offer a bit to Misato, but the outstretched hand was gently pushed back towards her with a shake of Misato's head.

Like all good things, the chocolate eventually came to an end. Asuka slouched back in her chair, radiating an aura of pure contentedness.

“Watching you enjoy that was almost as good as eating it myself,” remarked Misato. “Now I really want a beer.”

“Did somebody say beer?” said a voice from the cafeteria entrance. “Wish I could have a cold one right about now.”

The two male technicians came in and sat down at their table.

“Everything okay with the generators?” asked Misato.

Shigeru leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Yep, we finished the diagnostics, and called it in to Dr. Akagi. She told us to come down here and have a break.”

“But where's Maya?” The young woman hadn't entered with them. Makoto looked sheepish as he glanced towards the door.

“We, um... kinda lost track of her shortly after we left,” he said. “There's nothing to worry about though. A lot of the fighting was concentrated near the entrances. There shouldn't be much this deep in NERV to upset her.”

* * *

Maya screamed.

She placed a hand on her chest to try and still her rapidly beating heart, but the visage remained where it was. She _had_ come in here for... what? Some strange urge had propelled her here while the other two headed towards the cafeteria, and now she was staring at something horrifying.

Within seconds she was out of that area and running.

Maya never really had much trouble navigating the labyrinth that was NERV HQ. Even the Bakelite proved only a minor hindrance as she sprinted towards the medical wing. The thought never occurred to Maya to simply call her mentor and tell Ritsuko what she saw.

When Maya eventually burst into the room, the blonde scientist's reproach died on her lips as she saw the horrified look on her protégé's face. When Maya finally managed to stammer out an explanation, the colour drained from Ritsuko's face.

She almost leapt across the room to the communication panel and opened a channel to the group in the cafeteria. It only took them a few minutes to arrive at a dead run, with Asuka leading the charge.

“What's wrong with him?!” she demanded to know as she stopped in the doorway.

Ritsuko bit back a retort at Asuka's automatic assumption. “It's nothing to do with Shinji. Something else has come up and I need to go see for myself to confirm it.”

“What is it, Rits? Something bad?” inquired Misato. The grim look Ritsuko turned her way was enough to answer the question. “I'm coming with you then.”  
  
“I expected as much, but I need someone to- oh who am I kidding... Asuka, you'll obviously be staying here.” The redhead nodded emphatically. “Right. Don't touch anything. I don't care if you've already graduated college, this is delicate and complicated work and it will take a little while longer to produce results.”

Asuka took one look at Shinji on the table before turning back to Ritsuko. “Okay, but if I even think he's in trouble, I'll do whatever I can to shut this thing down, and to hell with your results.”

“There's an emergency shut-off on the console. Use that instead of brute force, _please_.”

With that, the adults ran out of the room, leaving Asuka to do nothing but watch the scanning waldos swing around Shinji's head as he lay quiescent on the bed in the middle of the room. She thanked whatever deity still remained that invasive probes weren't involved in this procedure. Having to see Shinji in hospital once again was bad enough, after all.

* * *

Misato was _really_ starting to feel out of shape now. She was barely keeping up with Ritsuko and Maya, and they were running as if there were an Angel right outside the base. At least she was starting to recognise where they were now. They had just passed what she believed to be the way to the command deck(?). A sick feeling entered her stomach as she wondered what had gotten the other two women so worried.

“Believe me, senpai,” Maya was saying, “I wouldn't be reacting like this if I thought I was imagining things.

“Maya...”

“Sorry... Ritsuko.”

The group slid to a stop in front of a very familiar door as they caught their breath. The churning in Misato's gut intensified when she realised where they were. Any possible doubt was destroyed by the words on the sign above the door.

[EVANGELION CAGES]

“For all our sakes, Maya,” she quietly said. “I really hope it was your imagination...”

The door opened and the automatic lights came on, revealing what lay beyond.


	10. Chapter 10

The Evangelions had been humanity's greatest weapon, and their only hope to defeat the Angels. Conventional weapons could not even hope to pierce their main defense, the AT-Field, except in ludicrous, unsustainable quantities or through the use of N2 weaponry. The only thing stopping an Evangelion from being automatically considered a similar threat to the safety of humanity was the massive investment that building one required, as well as the infrastructure needed to keep it functional.

Unit-00 had self-destructed, utterly annihilating itself along with the Sixteenth Angel. Unit-02 had been torn to shreds by the Mass Production Evangelions sent by SEELE. Unit-01 was used in the ceremony to initiate Third Impact, and ended up in outer space.

It was therefore not only a complete surprise to the NERV officers to see all three in the cages before them, but also an incredible shock to see the current state of two of them: Unit-00 was completely armour-less, and Unit-02 was little better. Scraps of metal plating still clung to Unit-02's body, but it was mostly uncovered and lined with horrific scars. It was clear now what had scared Maya; she had practically ended up face-to-face with the massive fleshy head of Unit-00.

Misato had once stared into the uncovered eye of Unit-01 during the operation to retrieve Shinji from the Evangelion's core. That alone had been unsettling enough, but seeing the other two behemoths in their state was worse. They looked much more like the monsters they truly were.

“My god...” The astonishment was obvious in Ritsuko's voice. “T-they're not supposed to be here anymore...”

“You're stating the obvious, Rits.” Fear and anger jockeyed for position on Misato's face. With the Evangelions gone, there would have been nothing more to endanger her children. Now that all three were back, however...

Ritsuko finally broke out of her daze. “Get up to the control room and get the Evangelions locked down!” she yelled at the technicians. “Without their armour, they're a potential danger to us and the entire base! Flood the cages with Bakelite if you have to!

Makoto was the first to move, tugging Maya along as he left the cage. Shigeru stopped at the door and spared an apologetic glance at Misato before turning to catch up to his fellow technicians.

The two senior officers watched and waited. A tense minute passed before warning bells sounded as the restraints latched onto the Evangelions and locked them down. Misato held her breath, almost expecting one of them to awaken and go berserk, but there was no response from the Evangelions as they slid into their resting position.

Ritsuko contacted the control room. “Just keep them restrained for now. Don't connect them to our systems yet.”

“ _Copy_ _that, senpai,”_ came the terse reply. _“Does that include power umbilicals?”_

“Affirmative. Physical restraints only. I don't care if their batteries are drained. That hasn't stopped an Evangelion from activating before anyway. If one of them even twitches, flood the cage.”

“This is wrong,” Misato quietly said. “Why are they back? The Angels are gone, we don't _need_ these... abominations anymore.”

The two of them left the chamber and started heading to the control room. The door to the cage hissed quietly shut behind them, and Ritsuko keyed in the lock code before replying.

“Whatever the reason, we're stuck with them, Misato. And until we can get new armour on Zero and Two, we're going to have to keep a constant watch on them. We can't afford a berserking Eva, especially now.”

Misato grit her teeth. “We should just dump them in Terminal Dogma and collapse the chamber on them. No good will come of keeping them around now.”

“I know how much you hate the Evangelions, but why go to such extreme measures to get rid of them?”

Misato stopped and planted an arm against the wall in front of Ritsuko. “Tell me, Rits. What _are_ the Evangelions? What is the one _single_ word you would use to describe them?”

They stared at each other for a moment. While anger showed prominently in the major's body language, fear was evident in her eyes.

“The answer you want to hear from me is 'weapon', Misato,” Ritsuko said as she broke eye contact and resumed walking. “And yes they _are_ weapons, first and foremost. You are worried about what will happen when humanity is restored.”

“I'm worried about the kids, Ritsuko! They are the only ones that can pilot them. What if Germany gets back on its feet and decides it wants Unit-02 and its pilot back? Are you going to be the one to tell Asuka she'll be forced to leave Japan? You know that they'll claim that there's no more reason for us to keep them with the Angels gone.”

The scientist raised a hand to thoughtfully tap a finger on her chin. “With Evangelion and N2 technology, and no outside threat to keep humanity united, there is a good chance that people in high places will start getting... ideas about expansion. There might come a time when an Eva would be forced to fight against a human force, or even another Eva.” She turned and pointed at her friend. “ _That_ is what you truly fear, isn't it Misato?”

Misato halted in her tracks as her worries were voiced by somebody else. She had promised to do everything she could to protect Asuka and Shinji, but even a NERV major could not overrule an entire government. It would be depressingly easy to coerce or threaten a pilot into 'pro-actively' defending their home, even one as headstrong as Asuka.

“Well,” Ritsuko continued, not having stopped her stride. “There's nothing we can do about it right now. Humanity first needs to rebuild, which will likely take quite some time. Speaking of which, we need to start communicating with the outside world. People might have started returning. We need to make ourselves known and co-ordinate relief efforts. I'm going to start work on that. You should go see Asuka in the meantime. She'll probably be happy to know that her Eva is back in one piece.” She turned down the hall leading to the Evangelion control room. “Mostly.”

Misato snorted humourlessly as she walked away. “Bet you a beer you're wrong.” If anything, Asuka would likely be just as worried as her after everything the girl had been through.

* * *

Asuka was almost beginning to fall asleep again as she sat next to the bed. The scan had been mildly interesting for a short time but her college degree did not cover anything like this, and so the readouts were useless to her. She tried to keep her mind occupied by thinking about the mystery of her perfect lunch, made by a boy who had never even seen anything German before meeting the redhead.

_'The meal that I loved, and the chocolate that always cheered me up. Once is happen-stance, twice is coincidence,'_ Asuka thought. _'If I go back to the apartment and find a packet of German biscuits hiding in a cupboard, there's going to be a problem.'_

While Asuka _had_ spoken to Shinji about German meals, mostly about how she would much prefer one to a Japanese dish, as far as she could remember those two precious memories of her mother had never been mentioned.

“Maybe you're just incredibly lucky, _Dummkopf_ ,” she muttered to the unconscious boy. “It certainly wasn't pure skill that got you to this point alive.”

A hand on her shoulder almost made her shriek in surprise.

“I don't really care about _what_ got him this far, Asuka,” Misato said from behind, ignoring the glare Asuka shot her way. “We're all here. We survived the worst life had to throw at us, and that's what matters.”

The scans had apparently finished. The waldos started to retract into the ceiling, and a soft chime emanated from the console nearby. Almost at the same time, Shinji's eyes began to open. While it looked like he was naturally waking up from a long sleep, the still-vacant look in his eyes showed that nothing had changed, to the disappointment of both females.

“Is this really surviving, Misato?” Asuka wondered out loud. “Shinji is almost mentally dead, and you and I both _actually_ died.”

The woman gently began stroking the boy's hair, and tried to avoid looking into his eyes. She didn't know how to answer the girl.

“So are you going to let me know what was so important that you all ran off and left me here?” Asuka asked.

Misato told her, without looking away from Shinji. The lack of response from Asuka finally made her look up, to see that the redhead was white as a sheet.

“They're... they're _back?!_ ” she stammered. “ _Mein Gott._ And here I thought we'd finally get to have normal lives.”

_'Told you, Rits,'_ Misato thought to herself. Out loud she said, “Ritsuko thought you'd be happy about it.”

Asuka stood up so fast her chair nearly fell over. A mixture of emotions swirled over her face as she paced the room. “I thought I would be too, not that long ago. It's just... You know my mother was in Unit-02. Now I only want to see if she's still there. If she managed to escape the Sea like we did.”

Once again, Misato put her hand on Asuka's shoulder as the girl walked past her. Asuka stopped and took a deep breath, looking down at the ground and clenching her fists.

“I didn't want to get my hopes up that she would return. Mama said that even she didn't think it was possible. But Unit-02, the _thing_ that housed her soul for a decade, what if she managed to get out of the Sea and is back in there somehow?”

She was dragged back towards the bed as Misato wrapped her in a hug. “You feel that you _have_ to see if your mother is in Unit-02,” the woman said. Asuka nodded as best as she could against Misato's chest, but didn't speak. “Look, for now there's nothing you can do about it. There is too much strangeness about the Evangelions, so you won't even be able to get near an entry plug for a while. Even if we decide to activate the Evas, Rits will want to run thousands of tests on them just to be sure that they're safe.”

“Where the hell is she anyway?” Asuka asked as they broke the hug. “Shinji's tests are finally done.”

Misato pointed towards the communication panel, and Asuka immediately went over to contact the control room. Ritsuko answered, and acknowledged the completion of the tests.

“ _I can transfer the results to my terminal here and look them over. Right now we're setting up automated messages to the outside world, so this will give me something to do while waiting for a response.”_

The scanner beeped as the transfer began, and Asuka closed the channel before returning to the bed. Misato was now holding Shinji's left hand and stroking the back of it with her thumb. Her other hand was once more going through the boy's hair. She idly commented that Shinji could do with a haircut, to which Asuka nodded.

“He needs a wash, more than anything,” she said. “The idiot's been wearing those same clothes since I saw him on the beach.”

“Are you offering, Asuka?” Misato slyly asked, trying to lighten the sombre mood that had fallen over the room. It appeared to work, as the girl's face almost turned the same shade as her hair.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! Don't you know how inappropriate that is?”

“The same could be said about any of us doing that though, but we can't simply ignore the problem. He needs fresh clothing, a bath, and a haircut.” Misato let go of Shinji's hand and wiped the dirt and grime off on the bed. “And I can only do one of those things without you calling me an old pervert.”

“Why don't I just tell him to do it himself?”

“Because it doesn't feel _right_ ordering him around like we've been doing. He's a scared, sick boy, not a... a puppet with strings for us to yank on. Shinji deserves better treatment than that.”

Asuka slapped her forehead in realisation; she hadn't even thought of that. “Yeah... I guess you're right. Alright, fine. I won't call you a pervert, Misato.” She thought for a moment, before continuing. “Well, you did say he's pretty much your son, so I suppose it's kind of like helping a disabled family member.”

The two began chatting for a while about what they would do upon their return to the apartment. Asuka realised that she would need some more clothes, considering that her rampage had destroyed much of what was in her closet. She decided to try and find something for Shinji at the same time. Misato was starting to respond with what she would have to do to assist with the relief efforts when a slight pressure on her hand stopped her.

Shinji's left hand had clenched ever so slightly tight around Misato's. It was barely noticeable, but it was there. Both females looked expectantly into Shinji's eyes and saw...

  
“Still nothing...”

_"Gottverdammte... SCHEISSE!!"_

The explosion of anger shocked Misato, and she backed away from the bed as Asuka pounded on it with her fists and began swearing in German.

“I am so sick of this! I'm tired of being worried about him every time I see him twitch in his sleep! I hate getting my hopes up whenever it looks like he's finally responding!” She latched both hands onto Shinji's shirt and lifted him up. “Come back to us, damnit!”

For one brief moment, it seemed as if Shinji was looking at her before his eyes unfocused, but the lack of response caused her anger to dissipate as fast as it had risen. Asuka dropped him back down to the bed and slouched forward on the chair, hair now completely covering her face. Misato's first instinct was to drag Asuka out of the room for the outburst, but she could feel the girl's pain. That tiny amount of pressure on her hand had almost been too much for her as well.

Shinji's mouth parted slightly, unnoticed by the two of them.

“S'ry...”

That one mumbled word, despite the lack of any further response, was all it took. Asuka looked up, and then collapsed onto Shinji's chest. With all thoughts of punishment gone, Misato quietly walked up behind the girl and gently stroked her back as she sobbed.

“D-damnit... How did you do this to me?” Asuka choked out. “Why the hell am I crying about _you_?”

There was only one thing Misato could answer that with. “Because you care about him, Asuka. It's as simple as that. Shinji's hurt, and you feel like there's nothing you can do to help him.”

“I... I _care_ about him? About _this_ idiot?” Asuka lifted her head, vision hazy as she looked back at her guardian through blurry eyes. “Is that really what it is? This... pain I feel?”

Misato nodded, unwilling at the moment to speculate on what else the girl felt for him, and Asuka buried her head in Shinji's chest again. She dragged another chair over to the bed and sat down next to the girl. One hand resumed stroking Asuka's back, and the other grabbed hold of Shinji's hand again.

She completely ignored the communication panel when it began beeping.

* * *

Maya swivelled in her chair to face her mentor. “They're not responding, sen-... Ritsuko.”

“They may have left the room already. Once I'm done here, I'll go back down there and let them know.” Ritsuko looked back down at her primary monitor. Their efforts had already started to bear fruit. It had only been a few minutes since their first automated message went out before NERV HQ received a reply.

A retired police officer had come out of the Sea and seen a small group of fellow returnees milling about nearby. He had guided them inland to an intact Angel shelter and later organised them into a scouting party to look for other people. They had then found more people, and the officer was waiting for their return when he picked up the message from NERV HQ.

“How many people are in that shelter right now?”

“ _Six, including me,”_ replied the officer. _“And one of them just now reported back that they found a family. Two_ _adults_ _and a child.”_

“Are all of them okay? No injuries or illnesses?”

“ _Nothing serious to report, ma'am.”_

“Very well. Look after them as best as you can. If you locate any NERV personnel, get them to contact us. As soon as possible, we are going to have to organise relief housing for the returnees. In the meantime, please continue sending out search parties. The quicker people know that we're recovering, the better.”

While there had been no word from overseas as of yet, Ritsuko was optimistic that the same thing was happening worldwide. People were now starting to return, and so they would need to be looked after. Leaders would spring up and guide their groups to safety. Critical services like food production would start again, and organisations like the United Nations could eventually start sending aid elsewhere. It would take time, but humanity would recover.

Hopefully the world wouldn't descend into chaos as more aggressive types rose to power with nothing to stop them.

There was nothing she could do for now, though. Ritsuko turned to the secondary monitor at her workstation. Try as she might, the three words in front of her refused to change.

>NO ANOMALIES DETECTED.

A worried-looking Maya got out of her chair and walked over to her. “Do you want want me to tell them, Ritsuko?”

“No,” Ritsuko sighed, burying her face in her hands. “I'll do it. There's something I need to speak to Misato about anyway.”

As she slowly went to get out of her seat, two hands gently pushed her back down and began massaging the scientist's shoulders. Ritsuko didn't bother to struggle, instead leaning back in the chair and closing her eyes. After a few minutes, the aches that had slowly been building up were gone. Ritsuko almost regretted that fact as Maya returned to her station after giving her a smile.

Even though the massage may have done nothing about the dread Ritsuko still felt, it had perked her up physically, and she now felt ready to face her friend with both the bad news about Shinji and... the other thing. She left the control room behind her and headed to the medical wing once more.

When she walked into the room, the way that Misato and Asuka got out of their chairs with expectant looks on their faces was almost enough to make her try to give an excuse and leave. Taking in a deep breath, Ritsuko stepped closer to the bed. Asuka appeared to have been crying, but the scientist tried not to let on that she had noticed.

“I can already see that you don't have good news, Rits,” Misato said as she sat back down.

Ritsuko nodded, not making eye contact with either of them. “I'm... afraid so. The test revealed nothing. As far as the scanners are concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Shinji.”

“That's a load of bull!” Asuka exclaimed. “Just look at him, this isn't normal at all!”

“This has gone far beyond any concept of 'normal', Asuka.” Misato placed a hand on Shinji's head. “If even NERV's best technology can't help him, I don't think anything can. Whatever he experienced in his role as the trigger for Third Impact, Shinji was so scarred by it that his mind has simply closed off.”  
  
“So you know about that,” Ritsuko said. “At least that saves a little time.”

The major looked up at her friend and narrowed her eyes. “Are you finally going to tell me everything?”

“Yes. I know you don't trust me as much as you used to, and I can understand that.” The scientist brought a hand up to rub her eyes. Staring at computer screens was already starting to give her a headache, and what was about to happen was not going to make it any better. “I just pray that what I'm about to tell you doesn't destroy what remains of our friendship.”

Asuka got up out of her chair. “I'm sure I don't need to hear this. I know enough about what you did that just being in the same room makes me want to hurt you.”

Ritsuko's eyes widened. She knew that Misato had a good idea of the truth behind Third Impact, but Asuka too? She stared at the girl as she took Shinji outside, which Asuka returned with hate in her eyes.

Just before the door closed behind her. Asuka heard a snatch of the conversation.

“Alright, what do you already know?”

“I got a lot of info from the MAGI right before the JSSDF attack...”

The hiss of the sliding door drowned out whatever else Misato was about to say. Asuka guided Shinji to the lounge out in the lobby and sat down next to him. With nothing to do but wait, Asuka's mind turned to the future.

How long would he stay like this? Technology had failed, but could a psychologist find a solution? Could _anyone_ help him? Shinji's mental trauma appeared to have made him almost completely incapable of responding to the world around him, only capable of responding to her commands.

Asuka sighed and leaned back into the chair, tilting her head sideways to gaze at Shinji. If nothing could help him, there would always have to be somebody looking after him. Possibly for the rest of his life. Asuka couldn't stand the thought of placing him in a mental ward. While they would be perfectly capable of seeing to his needs, minimal as they were, they wouldn't really _care_ about him, like Asuka now realised she did.

And if the story behind Third Impact was ever made public...

A crashing sound from down the hallway made Asuka sit up. A moment later, Misato stormed towards the lobby and stopped in front of her with her arms folded.

“We're going home,” she said. The tone of her voice indicated that she would hear nothing to the contrary.

Returning to the apartment turned out to be easier than reaching the Geofront. With power restored, so too were the transport systems. Nearly all the train tracks needed to be repaired, but the quality of construction in the large car train meant that it was still usable.

In her current mood though, Misato seemed to barely even care that her car had survived intact. When she was told that the car train was functional enough to take her back to the surface she simply made a beeline for her beloved Renault Alpine A310, got in, and started it up after only a couple of attempts.

Asuka had honestly expected her to hug it first.

Asuka bundled Shinji into the back seat and sat next to him. When they reached the surface, Misato surprised her again by not driving in her usual insane fashion. She was driving rather sedately, apparently deep in thought about whatever Ritsuko had revealed, and only swerving to dodge rubble.

A few returnees were spotted on their way to the apartment. They looked up and waved at the car as it passed, before returning to whatever they were doing. The pair remained silent as they slowly pulled into the parking lot of their apartment complex. As they went up the stairs, Misato's shoes crashed down on every step as if they had personally wronged her.

They pushed the sliding door to their apartment open, and went inside. While Asuka took Shinji to his own room and got him into bed, Misato collapsed lengthways into the lounge chair with her eyes closed as fatigue started to catch up to her.

She would not remain alone for long, however. She heard Asuka walking back up the hallway to the kitchen, before stopping suddenly. A couple of minutes later, she heard the girl speak behind her.

“Hey Misato. I think I found something to cheer you up.”

“Unless it's a cold six-pack, please stop trying,” Misato darkly muttered.

“I guarantee this is better than a hundred beers.”

A heavy weight was suddenly placed in Misato's lap. What was the girl sounding so sure about? What could possibly-

Misato opened her eyes. Two beady green orbs in a white and black face stared back at her.

“I-is that...?”

“Wark!”

It was better than a thousand beers.


	11. Chapter 11

The culprits behind Pen-Pen's sudden appearance knocked on their door the next morning. Misato had fallen asleep that night tightly hugging the penguin like a teddy bear, which Pen-Pen did not seem to mind in the slightest.

It was the sudden scream of joy that woke the pair of them. When Misato groggily made it to the kitchen she saw Asuka hugging a brown-haired girl while two bemused boys stood awkwardly nearby. The shorter boy waved at Misato.

“Oh, hello Miss Katsuragi!” he said. “It's good to see you made it back as well.”

Setting down a cup of coffee for the still-drowsy avian, Misato smirked at them. “Hello, boys. So you three are to blame for Pen-Pen sneaking into my apartment?” She motioned to the table and they sat down while Misato made more drinks for them.

“Yep, we came here because this smart-ass,” Toji slapped Kensuke on the back. “somehow knew that your building would be fine. Too bad the same can't be said of our houses.”

Kensuke began to bemoan the loss of the things in his bedroom, before another slap silenced him.

Hikari finally managed to break out of Asuka's hug and the two girls joined the others at the table. “We, um... borrowed an apartment downstairs when we realised you weren't here. I hope that's alright.”

Misato waved a hand dismissively. “It's fine. The entire building was turned over to Section Two to safeguard the pilots, so it's not like you're intruding on anyone's home.”

The bespectacled boy turned to Toji and said, “See? I told you it would be alright!”

“Yeah yeah, you were right. Now knock it off.”

Hikari cleared her throat meaningfully at them and they quieted down. She then leaned over towards Pen-Pen and began stroking his head. “When we were about to leave, Pen-Pen got rather... um... insistent that we let him stay here.”

“Crazy bird locked himself in a fridge,” Toji muttered. A look from Hikari silenced him again, but Toji soon shyly smiled at her, which was met with a smile and a reddening of the girl's cheeks as she ducked her head.

Misato slapped her face and groaned. “Damn, I forgot about his fridge. With no power, he won't be able to stay cool.”

“Wark.” Pen-Pen somehow managed to convey that he wasn't being bothered by the heat at the moment, before turning his attention back to Hikari, who was trying to get her blush under control.

“Oh, I guess you won't really need it much right now,” Misato brightened up. “With whatever happened, the climate's been affected. I actually had to close my bedroom window to keep the cold breeze out. I wonder if the Earth's axis has been shifted again...”

“Uh, hey, I don't mean to change the subject or anything,” Kensuke said, “but where's Shinji? Didn't he come back with you two?”

Toji tore his eyes away from Hikari. “Hey yeah, where is the Shin-man? In his room? We should go s-mmph.”

The slender hand now covering his mouth was only part of the reason for the interruption. The strange look on Asuka's face as she stared at Toji was the rest.

“Shinji...” Misato began as she gently pulled Asuka's hand away from the jock's mouth. “He's... he's not well.”

“Oh no, is he sick?” Hikari looked up and asked. “Would you like us to go get some medicine for him?”

“We don't know,” Asuka flatly said, sitting back down in her seat. “We took him down to NERV a couple days ago. That's why we weren't here yesterday. We got the power running in the base again, but none of the medical tests Doctor Akagi ran on him turned up anything wrong.”

“Asuka, perhaps you should show them,” suggested Misato.

Asuka closed her eyes, her head sinking to her chest for a moment. “I suppose. Finish your drinks and I'll take you to his room.”

* * *

Seeing as the storage closet that was Shinji's bedroom was so small, Hikari and Kensuke waited in the doorway while Toji stood with Asuka next to his bed. As usual, Shinji was staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Asuka, do you know what might have done this to him?” Hikari asked. “Some sort of Angel attack like what happened to you?”

While telling the trio about his condition, Asuka left out the part about Shinji being the trigger for Third Impact, and merely said that something he experienced in the Sea had most likely led to his catatonia.

“So he's in some sort of coma. Damn, Shin-man,” Toji whispered. “You just can't get a break, huh?”

Kensuke took his glasses off and wiped them on his shirt. “Mental trauma. I don't think there's a machine in the world that can do anything for _that_.”

A sudden grumble from Asuka's stomach reminded her that she hadn't had breakfast yet. Hikari quietly offered to cook, and  Asuka decided to let  Hikari work her usual magic in hopes of improving the mood. Kensuke was dragged along to assist, and Asuka heard her friend asking Misato for permission to use their kitchen to prepare a meal.

As soon as they left the room, Toji folded his arms and turned to Asuka.

“You're not telling us everything, are you?”

She had forgotten that Shinji's friends were not as dumb as they looked. Asuka knelt down besides Shinji's bed and gave a small nod.

“It's _not_ because you wouldn't understand, stooge. Something terrible happened that caused Third Impact, and Shinji was involved. It... it _has_ to remain secret for now. Not just for NERV's reputation, but... for our safety too.”

“I see.” Toji took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “I'll accept that for now, but you're going to tell me the truth as soon as you can.”

Asuka nodded again and Toji quietly stepped out of the room, pausing just outside the door to look back at the bed. Asuka was still staring at Shinji with what could only be concern.

“So the Red Devil has a heart after all,” he remarked. “Too bad you didn't grow one sooner.”

The glare that was suddenly levelled his way would have stopped an Angel in its tracks.

“Look, stooge. How about you keep your nose out of my business?” she hissed, keeping her voice low so it wouldn't carry down the hallway. “And I saw that look you gave my best friend. If I ever find out that you hurt her, you'll have to get your _other_ arm and leg replaced as well.”

To her surprise, Toji actually smiled at the threat. “Funny you should mention that; take a look.” He rolled up his shirt sleeve to reveal... a normal human arm. “When I came out of the sea my prosthetics were gone. I'm a whole man again!”

“Lucky you. I came back with my arm and eye bandaged and my whole body in agony from my final battle. No scars though...” Asuka absently rubbed her arm. It had recently begun to twinge again. It was no longer painful, but it was enough to remind her of what had happened to it every time.

“Huh. Let's see Kensuke explain _that_.”

The two of them walked back to the kitchen, where Hikari was already cooking up a storm with what she could put together out of their supplies.

* * *

“Hey...” Asuka said as she sat down at the table. “Before you came back, who did you all see?”

The  puzzled expressions on their faces was not what Asuka expected. Even Hikari stopped and stared quizzically at her. “I mean, I saw my mother, and Misato saw Kaji. They both told us that we should leave the Sea. What about you guys?”

The trio looked at each other for a moment, before giving up and shrugging.

“I... don't think we saw anyone, Asuka,” replied Kensuke. “I'm drawing a blank on anything that happened before I found myself swimming in red water. Wait...” He smacked his forehead a couple times, as if attempting to dislodge the memory, before sighing in defeat. “No, nothing. But I feel like there's something just at the edge, like when you have a word on the tip of your tongue.”

Hikari and Toji reported the same thing. No clear memory, but a feeling of something just out of reach. Even Pen-Pen looked stumped when asked, giving a reasonable impression of a shrug with his flippers.

Misato heard their conversation and walked in, taking a whiff of the air. “Mm, that smells good. Anyway, I think I know someone who could shed some light on your problem. Good thing I swiped this before I left.” She pulled out what looked like a cell phone. “Direct link to NERV. With phone lines down on the surface I needed some way of calling them in an emergency.” A number was dialled that was too short for a normal phone number.

It took almost no time for someone to answer. “It's Misato, is Akagi there? Put her on please. Akagi... Yes I'm calling you... No, I said I didn't want  _you_ to contact  _me_ for a week... Look, I'm putting Asuka on the line. She has a question I think you know the answer to, and it sounds important.”

Asuka shot an angry look at Misato, who simply passed her the phone and walked into the lounge room.

“ _Well?”_ came the impatient voice of Ritsuko Akagi from the phone. _“What's your question?”_

Asuka grit her teeth at the thought of having to speak with the scientist again so soon. “Doctor, this might sound strange, but do you recall _anything_ from just before you returned from Instrumentality? Did anybody... _encourage_ you? To leave, I mean.”

There was a long pause. It went on so long that Asuka checked the phone's screen to make sure Ritsuko hadn't hung up.

“ _No, Asuka,”_ came the eventual reply. _“I thought I had something, but I can't quite remember.”_

“What about the others with you? Some of my friends from school just recently returned, and none of them can recall anything from Instrumentality either.”

Another long pause, presumably so that the scientist could ask her co-workers.

“ _It appears that we're all in the same boat, except for you and Misato. Intriguing.”_

Asuka was about to hang up, when suddenly loud laughter erupted out of the phone. Misato walked back into the kitchen with an empty cup and heard it. She grabbed the phone from Asuka.

“Akagi, what's so damn funny?”

“ _Hahaha- Ahem. Sorry, Misato. I just thought of something.”_

Misato grimaced. “And that is?” she growled.

“ _The Old Men must have screwed up! Remember their ultimate goal? About combining humanity into one perfect being? How hard would that be when nobody is actually aware of what's going on?”_

“Wait, what? I don't think I'm following.”  
  
Ritsuko seemed to sober up a bit. _“If my theory's correct,_ _ **nobody**_ _besides you and Asuka will have any memory of Instrumentality. Humanity was supposed to share their minds with everyone else, but you two only met one person each. I find it hard to believe that absolutely nobody else would able to remember anything, when we were supposed to be linked to all of humanity. Perhaps human minds are simply incapable of perceiving Instrumentality.”  
  
_ Misato froze as the teenagers stared at her. “Are you saying that everything they had done for the last who knows how many years has most likely been a complete and utter _waste?!_ ” she slowly asked.

“ _Exactly! It's all so **fucking** hysterical! Billions of lives and trillions of dollars wasted on achieving absolutely **nothing**! I hope SEELE returns just so I can laugh in their face before we execute them for crimes against humanity! Hahahaha! Oh gods, excuse me please, I need to go lie down...”_

Misato sighed heavily and shoved the phone back in her pocket before slumping at the table.

“I'll explain some other time, kids,” she muttered upon seeing their expressions. When breakfast was served, she slowly ate in silence while around her, friends quietly caught each other up on what had happened. Afterwards, while Asuka was clearing the dishes, Misato had a question for the trio.

“Do you know if any of your parents have come back yet?” she asked thoughtfully.

All three of them stiffened in shock, but Kensuke was the first to say what they had apparently all just thought.

“Oh shit!”

Hikari was quick to recover and reprimand him. “Aida! Language! But yes, we did... kind of... forget about them in the excitement of knowing you were back,” she said, looking embarrassed. “They returned at the same time as us, and when we realised that our homes would have been destroyed, Kensuke led us to an Angel shelter where some other people had already taken refuge.”

The day before, the  teenagers had asked their parents for permission to go looking for their friends. While the adults had been nervous at first, the fact that they were travelling together, and already knew where to go put them at ease enough to let them leave. Hikari's role as class representative was also a big help in convincing Kensuke's father. Toji's sister had begged to join them, but their father had to put his foot down and keep her back.

After they had left Pen-Pen at  Misato's apartment, they  had seen how late it was and took an apartment on the floor below to wait for morning. They had actually heard the members of the Katsuragi household returning last night, but Toji held them back upon hearing the stomping in the stairwell, claiming that it would be better to wait until morning.

“Well kids, I could drive you back to the shelter if you like.” Misato volunteered. “I can explain to them why you were, ah... late shall we say. In fact, why not bring your families to stay in this building for a while?”

An exuberant look crossed Kensuke's face. “Wow! You would do that for us, Miss Katsuragi? But wait, what about Section Two, once NERV's back on its feet? Won't they have a problem with civilians this close to you?”

“As far as I know, I'm the highest ranking officer at NERV now, which means I'm in charge. Section Two will answer to _me._ If somebody doesn't like it, bad luck.”

That solved any other problems Kensuke might have had.

Misato took the  teenagers back to the shelter where their parents were staying, and spoke to them for a while. The prospect of a better temporary home, with the commanding officer of NERV as a neighbour, was too good for any of them to pass up.

“We'll walk,” Toji's father said when asked about getting to the apartment. “Our children already know the way, and a bit of exercise never hurt anyone. It will also give us a chance to pick up some supplies I know we'll need.”

Misato agreed, and returned home alone. She and Asuka then went about  preparing several apartments on the floor below for the families, removing all Section Two equipment at Asuka's insistence. Kensuke would likely have tried to hoard it according to  her , and so any sensitive material was moved to the seventh floor.

That night, after everyone had arrived and settled in, Hikari took over the kitchen once more, producing a dinner that more than satisfied all ten of them, and left aside a serving for Shinji. When Sakura asked about the boy who had saved her life during the Third Angel's attack, Asuka had to lie and say that he was very tired and would be asleep for a long time.

Sakura merely smiled and said, “Okay, I'll say hi to Shinji tomorrow!”

Misato and Asuka suddenly wished that the next day was much further away.

* * *

Sakura wasted no time coming over the next morning. There was even a tiny smudge of toothpaste on the young girl's face, a clear indicator of her haste which Misato took a moment to wipe off when she saw it. Hikari accompanied her to the Katsuragi apartment, while the boys and their fathers went out to see if they could help with relief efforts. Hikari was now with Asuka in her room while Misato took Sakura to see Shinji.

“So. You and the jock-stooge, huh?”

The class representative's face turned a _very_ interesting shade of red at that sudden question from Asuka. Hikari started babbling for a moment, trying to claim that nothing was happening as her blush only intensified. When she saw that Asuka wasn't fooled, she let out a sigh and dropped her head.

“What gave it away?”

Asuka flopped backwards onto her bed, the springs squeaking at the sudden impact. “Yesterday. You two were making eyes at each other at the table. Just be glad I'm the only one who noticed.”

“Please... _please_ don't tell anyone, Asuka,” pleaded Hikari. “We're not ready to reveal it yet.”

Waving an arm in the vague direction of her friend, Asuka replied, “Wasn't going to anyway. I'm just wondering how the hell it happened.”

After extracting a promise from Asuka, Hikari told her. While there had been... something between her and Toji last year at school, the evacuation of Tokyo-3 during the last days of the Angel War was mostly to blame for them now being together.

“I felt so out of place when we arrived in Tokyo-2. Because of the suddenness, there was no school for us to attend. I was starting to feel bored and useless, but Toji was there to cheer me up. We ended up talking to each other a lot with all the free time we had, mostly about our families.” Hikari's expression turned sad. “But every now and then, I'd catch him looking at his prosthetic arm with this look of utter disgust on his face. Did you know that he was forced to leave the basketball team here because somebody complained that his prosthetics gave him an unfair advantage?”

While Asuka didn't exactly _like_ Toji, she at least somewhat respected him. After all, his only stipulation for becoming an Eva pilot had been that NERV heal his sister. “Wouldn't they have been... calibrated or something? So they wouldn't exceed what he would have been capable of as a normal person?” she asked.

Hikari shook her head. “Toji tried to tell them that his prosthetic wasn't actually as good as a real arm, but nobody believed him. Of course, then the evacuation happened and it didn't matter any more, but he told me how that decision made him feel horrible. One day when we were in the park he just started angrily yelling about how he was less than human, and I did the only thing I could think of.” Hikari's blush started to return to her face.

Asuka sat up on her bed and stared wide-eyed at the brunette. “You didn't... _kiss him,_ did you?”

Hikari's cheeks suddenly turned the same colour as Asuka's hair. “N-no! I... I just... um...” She mumbled something inaudible.

The redhead leaned forward and cupped a hand behind her ear. “I'm sorry, what was that Hikari?”

If anything, the mumble was even quieter this time.

“You need to speak up, I can't hear you.” Asuka knew what she was going to say, but she wanted to hear Hikari say it herself. She couldn't help it, she was having fun gently teasing the girl, and after everything that had happened it felt nice to be talking about something _normal._

The heat from Hikari's cheeks almost reached across the room as she finally burst out, “I held his hand! He was about to punch a tree, so I grabbed it to stop him!”

In fact, once she had stopped Toji, Hikari had cupped the prosthetic hand in both of hers. To the look of surprise on the jock's face, Hikari had then told him that she didn't care that he had a fake arm and leg, he was still perfectly normal to her.

“Do you really mean that, Hikari?” Toji had asked. Hikari simply repeated herself, and Toji's face had relaxed into a smile. She hadn't done anything to stop him when Toji raised the prosthesis and stroked her cheek for a moment. But that moment had quickly passed, and he had pulled his arm away as his cheeks reddened to match Hikari's.

“When I woke up on the beach after Third Impact, I saw Toji hovering over me, looking so worried. He'd apparently found me unconscious next to him in the ocean, so he carried me all the way to shore. While we were resting, we held hands again. After that, we've hardly ever really been apart until today.”

Asuka listened intently as her friend told the story. She let out a soft whistle. “Well, while I can't say I approve of your taste, I'm happy that you found someone, Hikari.” She got off the bed and walked over to her friend, enveloping her in a hug.

“Thank you, Asuka.”

“At least you didn't fall for the other stooge,” Asuka snarkily added. “I definitely wouldn't have allowed _that_ to continue.”

“Asuka!”

Despite herself, Hikari began chuckling along with Asuka.

* * *

Across the hall, the mood was a lot more sombre.

“He looks sad.”

Misato glanced sidelong at the girl standing next to her by Shinji's bed. “Why do you think he's sad?” she finally asked.

Sakura leaned over the bed. “It's his eyes. They're sad eyes.” She stepped back and looked up at Misato. “Why is he sad? Heroes shouldn't be sad.”

“A... hero?”

The tone of the girl's voice wrenched at Misato's heart. Here was a girl who had been saved by the boy on the bed. While she had still been injured in the attack, if Shinji and Unit-01 had not intervened Sakura and Toji would have certainly died. Her brother's tales of the Third Child's exploits had evidently turned admiration into hero-worship. Misato knelt down next to her.

“Shinji was hurt badly, but it's not something you can see,” the major said. “During Third Impact, something terrible happened to him. He's almost in a coma now, and there's nothing we can do to help him, for now.”

“Was it an Angel?” Sakura asked inquisitively. “Did Shinji get cursed by one of those horrible things?”

“I, um, what? Cursed?”

The girl grew excited as a thought apparently occurred to her. “Yeah, a curse! Like Sleeping Beauty! Maybe a kiss will wake him up!”

Before Misato could even begin to protest, Sakura had climbed up onto the bed. By the time she rose to her feet, the girl was already gently pecking Shinji on the lips. Later, Misato would quietly admit that for a split second, she had hoped that it would work.

Unfortunately, it didn't.

Sakura got off the bed and stared at Shinji, waiting for a reaction. With each minute that passed, the young girl's face fell more and more. Her lower lip began to tremble as it became too much for her, and tears slowly started crawling down her face.

Seeing this, Misato reacted quickly and pulled the girl into a hug as her own eyes threatened to tear up at the sight. The boy Sakura thought of as her hero had just let her down, through no fault of his own.

“It's alright dear,” said Misato, trying to calm the girl down. “Thank you for trying though, I'm glad that you're as worried about him as we are. If there's anything at all that will give us even a slight chance of healing him, we'll try it. We won't give up on him. He doesn't deserve it.”

Sakura sniffled as she tried to burrow into Misato's shoulder. “Y-you mean it? You won't stop trying?”

Misato smiled warmly at the top of Sakura's head. “Of course not. He's like a son to me.”

“Okay. Um...” Sakura paused. “Can we stay like this a little longer? I haven't been hugged like this since... my mum died.”

The smile turned brittle, but thankfully the girl couldn't see the change in Misato's face.

_'If I ever find out that Akagi had a hand in the death of all these kids' mothers...'_ she thought. Out loud, she said, “Sure, let's sit here and keep an eye on Shinji for a bit.”

When lunchtime came around, Misato would have refused to admit to anyone that she was disappointed when the girl hopped off her lap. While Sakura was not as happy as she had been that morning when she arrived, she was more content than Hikari expected the girl to be after learning about Shinji.

Outside, the world continued to slowly rebuild itself. It would take a long time to recover, but humanity was nothing if not resilient.


	12. Chapter 12

Over the course of the next couple of months, Misato was constantly amazed at how people all over the world pulled together in order to recover from the after effects of Third Impact. There had been numerous times where she worried that warlords and dictators would rise up, attempting to aggressively expand and conquer during the chaos, but as time went on and none showed their faces she began to relax and let that fear dissipate.

In fact, there appeared to be very few people taking advantage of the situation. Shops and warehouses were looted, but only for essentials like food and clothing. Any car that had been taken was eventually returned to its rightful owner once it was no longer needed, and the food situation was quickly remedied once farms and factories were able to turn out goods once more. So many people were volunteering to aid with food production that some had to be turned away due to simply not being needed.

A week after the first load of fresh food from Tokyo-2 had been delivered to Tokyo-3 to end the need for scavenging and rationing, NERV personnel were hard at work reconnecting the Geofront's utility lines and vehicle tracks to the crippled city. An entire day was set aside for a final test of all the power lines, with the official power-on time scheduled for just after sunset.

Despite the destruction of most of the city there was still enough infrastructure left to make the spectacle worth watching as streetlights blinked back to life, and even from the roof the eleven people and one penguin on top of Misato's apartment building could hear the cheers of Tokyo-3's citizens as an essential modern-day need was returned to the populace.

On the morning of March 4th 2016, only one day after power was restored, the very first call to NERV from outside the city came from the office of the Japanese prime minister, demanding to know just what had happened. A sanitised version of the truth was told about how SEELE, along with Gendo Ikari, had been the masterminds behind Third Impact.

While there were obviously holdouts that refused to believe in a secret organisation that had been plotting the destruction of humanity, a single VTOL flyover of Tokyo-3 was enough to convince the majority of people that were sceptical about how badly devastated the city had become.

  
Or perhaps it was the scattered, decaying remains of Lilith that silenced them.

The news was quickly spread all over the world, and offers of assistance with reconstruction were made, mostly from the Americas and Germany, as thanks for NERV's heroic efforts in the Angel War. Builders and material were flown or shipped in, and new housing began to quickly spring up wherever there was space.

Now that the problems of basic survival had been dealt with, thoughts turned to the hole torn through the fortress city.

XX

Around the table in one of NERV's conference rooms, a discussion was well under way, and already people were feeling tired. Misato, Ritsuko, and Maya were on one side of the table, and several people from the Japanese prime minister's office were on the other.

"The next order of business, the hole in Tokyo-3 made by the N2 strike and the lifting of the Geofront," one of the men announced.

Misato sighed and took another sip of her coffee. “It's simply too large to just fill with earth, that would take forever. We're going to need space as quickly as possible if we're to get housing for all of Tokyo-3's citizens, and that thirteen kilometres would mean a lot of homes.”

The slim, blonde-haired man across from her replied, “Unfortunately, it's going to take forever anyway, Major Katsuragi. Even if we could level a mountain and drop it into the hole, there simply isn't a vehicle in existence large enough to make it take less time.”

“What about the rubble that's currently sitting above us?” the man at his left side asked. “We're going to have to shift it anyway, so why not push it into the hole?”

“A good idea,” Misato replied. “But unfortunately there isn't nearly enough of it.”

“True, but the rubble would just be for starters.” Ritsuko said.

“Oh? What else are you planning to dump in there, Doctor Akagi?” the blonde-haired man asked.

“Angels, Mr. Sonodo. We still have the bodies of most of them, and no further need to keep them. NERV already has enough samples from each corpse to last a very long time.”

“Still, their bodies won't exactly fill it to the brim, will they?” Misato queried.

“Well, if you're only thinking of the smaller ones, then no.” Ritsuko adjusted her glasses before tapping at the keyboard built into the table in front of her. “But you seem to be forgetting the size of one of the Angels.”

A holographic screen flashed into life in the middle of the table, showing an immense orange form sporting what looked like three-fingered hands coming out of a central ovoid body.

“The Tenth Angel,” Ritsuko announced for the benefit of the suited men. “The single largest being we encountered. Its apparent goal was to annihilate us by simply crashing into Tokyo-3. The force of its impact would have wiped this entire region from the face of the Earth and turned it into just another piece of ocean.”

Another image sprang up to replace the diagram of the Angel. Unit-01, with its arms outstretched, holding back the Angel as it attempted to crush the Evangelion under its weight. Even the massive bio-mechanical creation of NERV paled in comparison underneath the central 'eye' of the Angel.

“Thanks to the insane plan of our very own Major Katsuragi,” the scientist continued, “we managed to catch this Angel before it landed and killed it. While the core did explode, there is still much of the body left intact. This Angel alone would fill up most of the hole by itself, and it's conveniently in small enough pieces that we can move them.”

Misato began chuckling to herself, and Ritsuko turned and raised a quizzical eyebrow at her friend. “What's so funny?”

“We're planning to bury the Angels in a mass grave, right? So how does this sound?” Misato stood up and leaned on the table. “Tokyo-3 will be reborn. The Angels attempted to kill us, but we still stand. We shall rebuild our city over the corpses of those that tried to destroy humanity!”

Silence reigned at the table for a moment, before the brown-haired man to Mr. Sonodo's right coughed into his hand. “We... might have to edit that last part when we tell it to the media. It sounds a little too... macabre.”

“There's still the matter of the hole in the Geofront roof, Doctor Akagi,” Mr. Sonodo reminded Ritsuko as Misato let out a deflated sigh. “What are you going to do about that? There's no point in even planning to fill the hole until the Geofront is repaired.”

Ritsuko brightened up and tapped at her keyboard again. “Ah, we have some very good news there.” The screen now showed a frozen image from a video camera just above the hole. “That hole in the ceiling will be rather easy to fix, thanks to a discovery we made back when construction of NERV began.”

The image unfroze, and playback began. Several men carried a sheet of steel into view, and laid it down just over a section of the hole. Immediately, the Geofront roof began to ripple around the edges of the metal, before beginning to flow over it like water. Excited shouts could be heard from off-screen, and the camera shook as the person holding it moved forward to get a closer look.

Whatever it was that comprised the material of the Geofront, it was now replacing the steel. Within seconds, the rippling stopped as the material finished converting the sheet. Another was brought to a different section of the hole, and the process repeated itself.

“As you can see,” Ritsuko said as the recording stopped. “Whatever species built the Geofront also appear to have added in some capacity for self-repair. It makes sense, seeing that as far as we know these things were shot across space on their own. The ability to maintain itself would be incredibly useful in the event of, say, a rogue asteroid striking it. We originally ran into trouble while building doors and such, because any metal would get absorbed and become a solid piece of the Geofront wall again, which ruined any effort we had just made. One builder had the brilliant idea of 'framing' the cut pieces of wall with something that wasn't mineral-based, like wood, and that got construction back on track.”

“I don't suppose this is something we could replicate ourselves, is it?”

“Unfortunately not, Mr Tatenaka. While we can remove pieces of the Geofront shell, they become inert and no longer exhibit the repair capability, except when placed back in contact with the Geofront itself.”

The man who had asked the question looked disappointed. “That's a shame. But we are able to... help by giving it material to use?”

“Correct. It appears that it will 'accept' any piece of metal. A worker who had metal in the soles of his shoes found that out the hard way when his boots started to melt into the roof. Fortunately he was unharmed, but the order was passed around to refrain from placing any metal objects on the roof apart from what's being used to repair it.”

“Excellent. How soon will the roof be repaired?”

Maya passed her mentor a PDA, which the woman analysed for a moment before answering. “At our current rate of progress, it will be two weeks until completion. The process is also being simplified, as the Geofront is even shaping the pieces it receives to ensure a perfect sphere once more. I've already given the order to prepare the bodies of the Angels for transfer.”

The phone next to Misato began to ring. She picked it up. “I'm in a meeting. What is it?... What kind of problem?... Are you sure it's them?” Her voice turned grim. “I see... No, prepare a transport. I'm going to handle this personally.”

Misato put the phone away, and stood up to leave. “I'm sorry, everyone. Something has come up that requires immediate attention.”

  
“What is it, Major?”

The major stopped at the door, and unconsciously put a hand on her pistol holster. She looked back at the table with a grim look. “The JSSDF squad that attacked NERV just came out of the ocean.”

She left before anyone could stop her. After a moment, the blonde man finally said, “Well that might make this last issue a little awkward to handle to deal with. The future of NERV, and who to place in charge if we decide to keep it running.”

XX

A week after his return, Toji had voiced a concern about Shinji to the Katsuragi household.

“He needs exercise, even if all he can do is walk. He's already a skinny dude, and If you keep Shin-man laying in bed all day, his muscles are gonna disappear. You gotta get him out and about, just to try and keep what little he still has.”

Misato had immediately made the suggestion that Asuka take him for a stroll, which the redhead grudgingly agreed to. Now that people had returned, she could no longer simply drag him around by the hand as she had done before. Instead, Asuka had to order Shinji to follow her, and tended to stay close to the apartment building.

Unfortunately, that order tended to come with a problem. When Shinji followed her, it was always right on her heels, and that plus the blank look on his face tended to attract strange looks directed at him and Asuka, and a few people had even tried to stop the boy, believing him to be a stalker.

Asuka was almost annoyed that nobody else could get through to the semi-comatose boy but for some reason she always felt a twinge of jealousy when somebody tried, followed by faint relief at their failed attempt. And then she felt bad for being relieved. But Shinji was _her_ responsibility, and it didn't feel right to pass him off to somebody else even if they could communicate with him.

Shinji now at least looked much better physically, especially after Hikari had offered to trim his unruly hair. Since the two Evangelion pilots were approximately the same size, it had been rather easy for Asuka to loot new clothing for him before civilisation had returned. Clothes that were most definitely _not_ a plain white button-down shirt and black pants.

Today she had been planning a trip to the mall to, as she said to Misato that morning, 'update the Third's wardrobe'. They both could do with more clothing, although Asuka would admit that the trip was more for her benefit than Shinji's.

When they left the apartment building, Shinji was on her heels like a lost dog as usual. They made it to the mall without anybody noticeably staring and Asuka immediately went to the nearest clothing store. It was clear that the people of Tokyo-3 wanted to return to a normal life as quickly as possible. Most of the shops and stalls were already open, with people wandering around as if a cataclysmic event had not just recently happened.

Asuka would have enjoyed her time at the mall, had it not been for a couple of incidents. The first was when a clerk walked up to the redhead after she had spent about twenty minutes picking out clothes for Shinji.

“Excuse me, miss,” the woman said. “Is this person bothering you?”

“No, he isn't,” Asuka tersely replied while holding up a shirt. “He's my... house-mate.”

The clerk nodded and turned to Shinji. “Well, I'm afraid I'll still have to ask you to leave, sir. You're... disturbing the other customers.”

Asuka looked around, and saw several other people looking their way suddenly turn around and become incredibly interested in whatever was in front of them. She groaned in frustration.

“There's nothing he can do about it, alright?” she growled. “He was traumatised by Third Impact and I'm the one that looks after him. If you have a problem with that then I'll take my business elsewhere!”

Backing away in shock, the clerk stammered, “O-oh! I didn't know! Please accept my apologies!” She bowed profusely in front of Asuka, who grunted in annoyance and turned back to the rack she had been perusing. It might have been better after all to simply leave Shinji on a bench just outside.

The redhead grit her teeth in anger. If people knew just who Shinji was and what he had done, what he had sacrificed for them, they wouldn't be so quick to judge him, but security concerns meant that the identity of the pilots had to remain secret, now more than ever.

When Asuka decided that she had enough clothing for the two of them, she walked up to the front counter, and sighed as the same clerk once again apologised. She silently paid for her things and left, carrying three bags of clothing. The German girl would have given one to Shinji to hold, but it felt too much like she would be... using him if she did that. At least clothing didn't weigh much.

Perhaps if she had done it anyway, the second incident would have been avoided. Asuka almost made it to the mall exit when she was stopped by a black-haired teen.

“Hey Soryu, is this freak troubling you?” he asked, grinning at the redhead.

Behind her, the teen's two friends were holding onto Shinji, who was futilely trying to reach Asuka.

“Hey! Let him go, you shitheads!” she yelled as she stomped over to them.

“Whoa, are you defending this creep or somethin'?” one of them asked as they relaxed their grip on the boy.

“Yeah, he's been hangin' all over you ever since you came here!” the other added. “Least he could have done was hold your bags. Why don't you ditch him and walk home with me? I'll carry them for you.” He shoved Shinji away, and the boy immediately fell over and lay still on the ground.

The three teens were only seconds away from being flayed alive by Asuka when a voice from behind said, “How about you go find someone else to harass, Hiro?”

The black-haired teen turned and snarled. “Suzuhara. You're jumping in to protect him too?”

“Damn right I am.”

While the delinquents were facing off against Toji Suzuhara, Hikari and Sakura were gently lifting Shinji off the ground as Pen-Pen made angry penguin noises at the hoodlums. The boy hadn't even attempted to soften his fall when he had been shoved, and had been only centimetres away from hitting his head on a planter box.

“Phew, he isn't badly hurt,” Hikari said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Sakura was visibly upset by the teen's treatment of Shinji. “Those mean boys almost hurt him!”

“And now your brother needs to have a chat with them about their behaviour, so let's go outside and wait for them.”

Only a minute later, Hiro was in the foetal position on the ground after being kicked in the gut by an irate redhead. The other two had attempted to intervene, only to be stopped by Toji grabbing handfuls of their shirt and lifting them both effortlessly into the air. Their struggles ceased instantly once they saw his expression.

“Get the hell out of here,” he practically shouted in their faces, before dropping them back to the ground. “And don't let me catch you picking on my friends again.”

They hastily picked up their defeated leader and fled. As soon as they were out of view, Toji exhaled deeply and glanced sidelong at Asuka, who still had her fists clenched with a hateful look on her face while staring in the direction the teens had retreated. Toji called out to her, and Asuka snapped out of it, shaking herself and letting her arms drop to her side. He jerked his head towards the exit, and they left the mall.

Outside, the two girls and Shinji were sitting on a bench, with Pen-Pen being hugged to Sakura's chest. It was hard to tell who was comforting who. Asuka rushed over to check on Shinji, but apart from a lump on his head where it had connected with the ground, the boy seemed unharmed.

She gently pushed the boy to one side and sat down on the bench next to him before turning her attention to the jock. “Okay, Suzuhara, who the hell were they? You apparently knew one of them. And what are you all doing here? I thought you had plans for today.”

Sakura stood up to make room for Toji, and got on his lap when the boy took her place next to Hikari. “We did. We were on our way home when Sakura asked to go to the mall for a bite to eat at the food court.” Toji smiled at his little sister. “I'm glad she did, now.

“Anyway, the guy who stopped you was Hiro Kitamura. I never bothered to learn the names of his cronies. You're not the first girl they've tried to," he put up his hands and made finger quotes, "'impress' with what they probably think is chivalry. I heard Hiro actually paid someone to harass a girl last time, just so he could swoop in and get rid of him.”

The redhead rolled her eyes and scoffed. “I guess even Third Impact can't change some people. Well they should just consider themselves lucky that Section Two isn't back on their feet yet to guard us pilots. They'd probably have shot him and his flunkies dead.”

Sakura bounced up and down on Toji's lap. “Big bro! Did you teach them a lesson?”

Toji looked down at his sister, and gave her a thumbs up. “Asuka did the teaching. I just made sure they paid attention in class!”

XX

The noise of the transport VTOL seemed to be trying to pound its way into Misato's skull, even through the flight helmet she was wearing. It was too loud to speak, even to the guards on either side of her.

When the news of who had just emerged from the ocean broke, it seemed as though everyone in the base had been clamouring to grab a gun and join her. Since there wasn't nearly enough room, Misato simply selected six guards for her own escort and ordered the rest back to their duties.

Somebody had obviously made their own decision though, as three attack VTOLs and another transport quickly joined hers in the air, and Misato didn't feel like ordering them back to base. Looking to her right, she could see the transport was full nearly to bursting with NERV personnel; most likely over the legal limit. She wondered if they were just there to protect her in case a fight broke out, or hoping to get some well-deserved revenge.

Her fingers clenched and unclenched repeatedly on the sub-machine gun in her lap. While the report had not mentioned the JSSDF soldiers keeping their weapons on their return, she was taking no chances. Her escorts were checking their own weaponry, wearing expressions as grim as the one on Misato's face.

  
Every single person in the gunships and transports heading for the beach had been attacked and killed by the men they were now on their way to intercept. The guards had died defending the base, Misato had bled out from a bullet wound received while escorting the Third Child; even the aircraft pilots had been gunned down where they stood without mercy. If the JSSDF tried to to purge NERV again, they would encounter much fiercer resistance this time.

  
Privately, Misato hoped they would at least try to escape. They had almost killed the closest thing she had to a son. The fact that Shinji had then gone on to initiate Third Impact due to the machinations of old men didn't matter to her.

The aircraft touched down gently not far away from the beach. As soon as the wheels hit the ground, Misato was already out and striding towards where the soldiers had been sighted. The dozen men now accompanying the major rapidly formed around her, each with their weapon drawn and aimed forward as if they were expecting an ambush. Misato's own gun was hanging at her side by its strap and loosely clasped in her right hand.

The guards ahead of her suddenly started muttering to each other as the beach came into view. Expecting trouble, she pushed ahead to get a view of the area and start issuing orders. Misato had honestly been anticipating at least a scuffle. What she got instead was...

Several groups of JSSDF soldiers were kneeling on the sand with hands behind their bowed heads. The posture, combined with their demeanour, made them look like prisoners of war. The fact that there had been merely three NERV  soldiers guarding them before the major arrived, and only one with a sidearm, did not seem to matter to the soldiers. There was clearly no fight left in them.

Misato held her men back for a moment with an upraised hand. “Do not shoot until I give the word,” she quietly ordered. “But feel free to look as menacing as possible.” She chopped her hand forward, and the guards moved forward to relieve the men that had intercepted the soldiers. The three  soldiers walked up the beach to Misato, and the man with the sidearm stepped up and saluted.

“Report,” Misato tersely said.

“Major Katsuragi,” the man replied. “We were on patrol here for more returnees when Koteki spotted movement in the water, ma'am. The moment we saw what they were wearing, I sent Namida to call HQ.”

“Did you order them to... prostrate themselves like this?” She waved a hand towards the prisoners.

“No, ma'am. We honestly thought they would try to rush us. Per orders, only I'm armed so as not to scare any returnees, so we would have had no chance to stop them.”

The man to his left, Private Koteki, spoke up. “As soon as they saw us, they started looking... ashamed, ma'am. Then one of them ordered the others to place themselves in our custody.”

“Hmm. Do you remember which one it was?”  
  
“Unfortunately not, ma'am. They all look alike and they did move around a bit before sitting down.”

Misato stared at the soldiers for a few moments. Once or twice one of them would look her way, before quickly looking back down at the ground. She pointed the  relieved soldiers towards the VTOLs, and they gratefully left the beach while she moved on.

Her squad leader stepped forward. “Nothing to report, major. No weapons on them that we could find.”  
  
“They're probably still in our hallways,” Misato  mused . “Alright, I'm going to speak to them. Stay alert and pass the word. If any of them make a sudden move towards one of your men, that idiot is to be dropped.”

“Understood, ma'am.”

The NERV guards parted as she approached, closing the gap behind her once more. Misato placed one hand on her hip, raised her sub-machine gun to the sky, and barked, “Which one of you is in charge?”

None of the soldiers made a sound. A few of them cringed at the sound of her voice, touching the ground with their foreheads.

“Come on, I haven't got all day,” she said, raising her voice. “Surely there's a Sergeant among you, or at least a Leading Private.”

Somebody finally spoke up near the back. “What are you going to do with them?”

“I'm going to ask some questions,” Misato replied, hunting for the source of the query. “If I like the answers, I might decide _not_ to let the people you murdered get some revenge.”

With a sigh, the voice said, “I'm going to stand up now.”

Misato nodded to her squad leader, and the NERV troops relaxed their weapons slightly. The man who had spoken stood up, keeping his hands behind his head. Misato motioned for him to step to the front, and he carefully picked his way through his brothers-in-arms, coming to a halt in front of her.

“I am Lieutenant Okamura, and I'm the highest ranking soldier here,” he calmly said.

“Take that helmet off slowly,” the major ordered. “I want to see your face.”

The helmet was dropped to the sand, and Misato stared into the haggard face of a man who might have been the one that shot her. Or he might have been the one to nearly kill her surrogate son. His voice did sound strangely familiar. The plastic grip of her sub-machine gun began to creak slightly as her fist tightened.

“First question. Why did the JSSDF invade NERV?”

“Our orders were to assault NERV and eliminate everybody,” the lieutenant replied, adopting the look of a soldier being dressed down by a superior. He looked as if he were just barely refraining from saluting on impulse. “We were told that you were all planning to bring about Third Impact.”

  
“Well whoever told you that is a goddamn liar,” Misato angrily replied. “There was only _one_ person in NERV plotting the end of the world, and that was Commander Ikari. You could have just gone straight for his office.”

“The order came from General Tokutei.” Okamura's gaze was fixed at a point somewhere beyond Misato's left ear. “He said that every single person in NERV was complicit in the plot, and demanded that there be no surrender accepted and no mercy given.”

The lieutenant's calm facade began to crack as Misato's face began to contort in rage. His eyes shifted to the weapon in her upraised hand and back. “T-those were our orders! We're soldiers! We were just following orders!” he stammered.

There was a blur of movement, and the man suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of the major's gun. Behind it, Misato's eyes had narrowed to slits.

“You'll need to do a lot better than a Nuremberg defense, lieutenant,” she growled through clenched teeth.

“P-please, ma'am! You have to understand, we didn't _want_ to do this! We all thought NERV were heroes for killing the Angels, none of us _really_ thought you were going to initiate Third Impact, no matter what we were told!”

Misato stepped closer, and the man went cross-eyed as he stared at the barrel pointing at the middle of his forehead. “So then why the hell did you do it?! You're soldiers, not mindless drones!”

“ _It was you or our families!_ ” the lieutenant screamed, clenching his eyes shut.

Misato's gun dipped slightly in shock. “...What did you just say?” Her voice had rapidly shifted to a dangerously low tone. Okamura swallowed and opened his eyes slightly.

“T-that was what we were told, ma'am,” he unsteadily replied. “We could either do as we were ordered, or we would be executed along with our families. One of my fellow officers, Kunisada, he... he called their bluff and tried to leave. One of the general's men shot him in the back as soon as he turned around, then the general gave the order to... _purge_ Kunisada's family and asked if there was anyone else who didn't believe him.”

All around her, Misato could see disbelief on the faces of her men. While a few of them were still pointing their weapons at the JSSDF soldiers, many were now muttering to each other.

“Why the hell would a general go to such lengths to control his own men?” she thought aloud.

“There were... rumours about General Tokutei,” Okamura offered. “Rumours that he hadn't gotten his rank purely through skill.”

“Of course. SEELE must have helped.” Misato tapped her forehead with the top of her sub-machine gun. “They could have easily slipped people into such a role.” She stared the lieutenant down. “And is all of what you just said true?”

The man looked directly back at her as he instantly replied, “On my word as a soldier, I have not uttered a single falsehood since coming ashore, ma'am.”

Misato began to pace back and forth for a moment, deep in thought while still tapping her gun against her forehead. After a minute she turned to Okamura. “Then as a fellow soldier, I'll accept your word. You may return to your men.”

Okamura slowly began to remove his hands from his head, and Misato called for her escort to stand down. While there were a few grumbles, the NERV troops accepted her order and shouldered their weapons. She then called NERV and asked Ritsuko to find everything she could on General Tokutei and anyone that may have been affiliated with him.

As Misato reached the end of the beach, Okamura called out, “Major!”

By the look on his face, the sergeant probably felt that he had spoken too suddenly as a couple of weapons were now trained on him. Misato walked back, signalling her men to relax.

“What is it?” she asked.

Okamura drew himself up and looked her directly in the eye. “I just wanted to say... thank you, ma'am.”

“For sparing your life?”

“No, for ending it.”

Misato almost asked him what was meant by that, when she abruptly realised where she knew the voice from.

_'It's nothing personal...'_

“You... you were the one that was about to _shoot my boy_!” she yelled, anger flaring once more as her gun swung up to point at him.

“Forgive me, major!” Okamura's hands shot up above his head. “I-I didn't sign up to kill children, I tried to put it off for as long as possible! That's why I'm thanking you for stopping me! My daughter is the same age as that kid!”

The gun lowered once more, but the lieutenant kept his hands in the air. Misato walked up until their faces were only a few centimetres apart. “Well, once you're cleared, you should go see if she's come back yet,” she whispered.

Before she got back onto the VTOL, she called Ritsuko once more. “Another search, Rits. See if there are reports about the families of JSSDF soldiers being killed, or 'disappearing', just before Third Impact as well as after.”

“ _What are you planning, Misato?”_

“I want to make sure that there's nothing left of SEELE to threaten us. The Old Men haven't come back yet, and I doubt they will since they're right where they want to be. If we can't put them on trial, we may as well go after any underlings that might have returned. No doubt they'll be trying to get revenge.”

“ _And the family search?”_

Misato sighed. “Speak with the ranking officer of the JSSDF squad that will soon be getting taken back to NERV for debriefing. He has some... interesting information about how his squad was motivated to attack us.”

“ _Oh right. That.”_

“Huh?” Misato wondered what her friend meant for a moment, before shaking it off. “Whatever. Now, I hope there's no more questions for me. I'm tired and I want to go to bed.”

“ _Sorry, but you'll need to come back to base first, I have to speak to you in person about a couple of things.”_

Another, longer and louder sigh. “Can't it wait until tomorrow?”

“ _Afraid not. One of them concerns Shinji and Asuka, mostly Shinji, and I need to know your answer as soon as possible.”_

Her bed would have to wait a little longer, it seemed.

XX

The expressions on the faces of all of the returning NERV personnel were almost identical as they disembarked the VTOLs; confusion, mixed with anger. Many of them would be nursing hangovers the next morning as they attempted to cope with what they had learnt that day. Misato was wishing that she could join them, but duty called. She stopped at the armoury to return her borrowed weapon before heading to the command centre.

She nodded to Ritsuko as she entered and almost plopped down into a vacant chair in front of the main screen, but the chief scientist's hand on her shoulder stopped the tired major.

“Let's go to my office, Misato.”

Ritsuko refused to speak further until the door was closed and they were both sitting down on either side of her untidy desk.

“I'll start off with the only thing that could be completely good news,” she sighed as she leaned back in her chair. “Evas Zero and Two are now armoured enough that I once more feel safe walking into their cages. They still won't be combat-capable for a long time, however.”

“'Combat-capable'?” Misato repeated with a raised eyebrow. “You're actually bringing them back to full readiness, Ritsuko?”

Ritsuko nodded. “ _Something_ brought all three of them back for a reason. Their purpose was supposed to be fulfilled after Third Impact, but they're here and sitting in our cages. I would rather armour them up now and never have to launch them,  rather than suddenly need the Evas and have them be useless. It's giving the crews something to do, anyway.”

The scientist exhaled and sat back up in her chair. A document was located and placed in the middle of the desk. “Which brings me to my next point: the future of NERV. You missed out on the last half of our meeting.”

“I'm sorry Rits, but I had to be there myself,” Misato began to explain, but a waved hand cut her off.

“It's fine, Misato. We had to make a very important decision, but I'll get to that in a minute. One of the men in that meeting was a representative from the U.N. They were recently in discussions about whether or not to continue letting NERV operate as it currently is, with the threat of the Angels no longer around.”

Misato leaned forward in her seat. “I take it they were talking about shutting us down?”

  
“Some of the people that fund us believe it should happen. Others want to convert NERV into a research centre, since we're pretty much halfway there as it is. But no, for now, this is their decision.” Ritsuko pushed the document in front of Misato, who picked it up. Her eyes flashed across the page as she read the short paragraph several times, letting the information sink in. Finally, she slowly dropped the paper back to the desk and stared at Ritsuko.

“They're... simply going to let us stay like this?” she asked.

“Correct. Until the end of 2018 or until we can absolutely guarantee that there is no further threat to humanity from Angels or similar entities. It seems that enough people took our suspicions seriously that they don't want to dismantle NERV and the Evas only to suddenly need us again. We're still a massive money sink though, even at our current level of operation. In 2019, our future will be brought up again, with the only likely options then being dismantling completely, or conversion to R&D.”

While NERV produced its own power, it still required food, parts, and other amenities. The outdoor area of NERV could be turned to agriculture in a pinch, but it would still need to bring in resources that were impossible to produce in the Geofront.

“Well, looks like we'll be sticking around for a couple more years then,” Misato said, yawning slightly before continuing. “Damn. I wanted to quit and find a far more relaxing job, but it seems as though I'll still be needed.”

The sudden sheepish look that appeared on Ritsuko's face caught Misato's attention, along with the way the faux-blonde began looking through the papers on her desk and muttering to herself about having something only a moment ago. She finally retrieved another document that looked similar to the one Misato had just read.

“Here we go. The third point, and the final part of the meeting you missed out on.” The paper was gently placed in front of Misato, and Ritsuko withdrew to her side of the desk as if expecting something nasty to happen. Misato directed a suspicious glare at her friend for a few seconds before picking the paper up. The glare quickly vanished and was replaced with a look of complete shock.

_It is the decision of the United Nations that Major Misato Katsuragi be promoted to the currently-vacant position of Commander of NERV. Her heroic efforts in the Angel War, as well as her actions during recent events, lead us to believe that she is the right person to replace the late Commander Ikari as head of NERV._

_Misato Katsuragi will remain Commander until such time as she proves unfit for the position, or until the dissolution or conversion of NERV in 2019. She is free to select whomever she wishes as Sub-Commander to replace the late Kozo Fuyutsuki._

_We offer Commander Katsuragi our sincere congratulations on her promotion, and hope that she strives to always do what is best for all of humanity._

_Remember: we will be watching._

Reading the document worked better on Misato's tiredness than a triple shot of espresso.

“This... there's no way this can be true!” she exclaimed. “I'm just a major, a freaking _tactical officer_ , not a leader of... of an entire organisation like NERV!” She jumped out of her chair and began pacing back and forth.

“The U.N. thinks otherwise, Misato. They believe you're the best person for the job.” Ritsuko grinned and leaned her head on an upraised arm. “Hey, look at it this way. You _really_ cannot do any worse than the previous Commander.”

Misato stopped her pacing and slumped, leaning her head to the side to glare at her friend. “Considering that the last person who had the job tried to _destroy humanity_ , that's not exactly a high bar to reach for, Rits.” She picked her chair back up from where it had fallen over and plopped back down on it.

“Okay, so I pretty much led the defence against the Angels. I was the one in charge of the Evas in the field and helped save humanity from utter extinction, I get that. So what is this 'actions during recent events' stuff they're talking about.” Misato poked at the offending document.

“You should know, _Commander_ ,” Ritsuko replied, eliciting a glare from Misato to which she gave a disarming grin. “After all, you just returned from said event.”

The glare faded, to be replaced by confusion. “They already know about the beach?!”

“Yep. One of the birds that escorted you recorded the entire incident. The United Nations are going to be conducting their own investigations into the matter of the JSSDF's... involuntary operation. That's an evil way to get people to do what you say. This General Tokutei has apparently given the U.N. headaches before; I heard something about using children in their own prototype military robots. While there's no guarantee he'll return from Instrumentality, we can at the very least posthumously condemn him and try to figure out who he was really taking orders from.”

“Instrumentality's far too good for the likes of him.”

“I know, but we can't exactly go back in there and drag him out.”

Misato rubbed her eyes as the tiredness began to seep back into her. “Alright, so what did you have to speak to me about concerning my ki- concerning Asuka and Shinji?”

Ritsuko turned serious. “This... is the thing that I'm most concerned about. I'm sure I know what your immediate response will be, but _please_ consider this,” Ritsuko pleaded. “For both of their sakes, promise me you'll stop and seriously think it through before making your first decision as Commander.”

The new Commander sighed and thought for a moment, before saying, “Alright alright, I'll listen carefully and not give an answer straight away. So, what are you planning?”

The room was silent as Ritsuko fidgeted in front of her friend, now her superior officer.

“There's one thing left that we can attempt to try and help Shinji, and something we can do for Asuka at the same time, since she knows the truth about her mother and Unit-02.” The doctor took a deep breath and looked Misato in the eye. “I want to get them both into their Evangelions one more time.”


	13. Chapter 13

Misato stared across the table at the fidgeting girl in front of her. Despite the extreme lateness of the hour, and how incredibly tired she felt, this had to be done now.

“I'm not actually _upset_ with you at all, Asuka,” she said. “But while I can certainly understand that you want to do everything possible for him, I don't know what you expected to accomplish by... _that._ ”

Asuka nodded but kept her face downcast, trying to hide her embarrassment. “It... it wasn't just for him, Misato,” the girl mumbled, not daring to lift her gaze from the table. “I did it for... myself as well.”

Misato drew back slightly, then narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. She rested her elbows on the table and, without even thinking about it, dropped into the exact pose of her predecessor. The effect it had on Asuka was unnerving to say the least when she raised her head, and only served to make her stutter and stammer as she tried to get her explanation out. A tiny smirk broke out on Misato's face once she noticed what she had done.

“Calm down. Take your time and think carefully about what you are going to say.” Misato watched Asuka take several deep breaths, before finally looking into her guardian's eyes. “Proceed.”

* * *

It all started reasonably enough. A couple of weeks ago, another nightmare had forced Asuka from her bed and into the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. The return to her bed had been halted by the sound of mumbling originating from Shinji's room.

The boy was once again tossing and turning on his bed, the bedclothes thrown almost completely off of him. She rushed to his side and grasped one of his feebly waving hands, placing one of hers on his cheek to try and soothe him. The physical contact worked once more, and Shinji finally calmed down.

The reason why Asuka didn't return to her own bed that night began with the death grip Shinji maintained on her hand. She certainly didn't want to wake him up after helping to finally drive away whatever was currently tormenting him, so she replaced his blankets as best as she could and sat down next to the bed, hoping that his hand would relax as his sleep became less terror-filled.

Before she knew it, it was suddenly morning. Despite the physical aches from such an awkward sleeping position, it had been one of the most restful nights Asuka ever had. While there had been no dreams that she could recall, there had been no nightmares either. Misato was awake, preparing... _something_ for her breakfast, but didn't notice Asuka sneaking back into her room.

The next week would see the redhead occasionally return to Shinji's bedside and repeat her actions. While she considered the cricks in her neck a small price to pay for a guaranteed night of peaceful slumber, her body didn't see it that way, and began to loudly complain about her new and uncomfortable sleeping arrangement.

A thought then occurred one night as she sat down beside the bed, one that turned Asuka's face the same colour as her hair. It was a rather simple solution to both the problem of her aches, and that of combating the nightmares for both of them. Her mind went to war with itself for a few minutes, trying to both justify the idea and condemn it.

_**'Just being close to him is enough to banish our nightmares, and we have the same effect on him.'** _

_'I can't do this! I can't sleep in the same bed as him!'_

_**'Why not? It's not like he'll notice.'** _

_'But it's... I'd be taking advantage of him! I felt bad enough just considering telling him to hold my shopping!'_

_**'All you're doing is sharing his bed. You're not ordering him to do anything, and it will ensure that you both can sleep well.'** _

_'What if Misato comes in and sees us?'_

_**'Yeah right. She's always either asleep before us, or coming home late at night. Work keeps her so busy she'll never notice.'** _

Asuka mentally stumbled for a moment, but rallied quickly. _'He's a boy, I'm a girl. It's just not right for us to sleep in the same_ _room_ , _let alone the same bed.'_

_**'That's a terrible excuse and you know it. You've fallen asleep next to him how many times now?'** _

_'But...'_

_**'And don't try to pretend you haven't thought about it before. You wanted him to hold you that time in the kitchen, but he didn't. What was the first thing you thought of when you went to bed that night after you pretended** _ **_to clean your mouth out?'_ **

That was a low blow. _'Damnit... don't make me remember that night...'_

_**'Just admit it, you're curious. What would it feel like to wake up to the warmth of someone else? To wake up and no longer feel lonely? To wake up and not be drenched in sweat again after yet another bad night?'** _

Asuka could not find a suitable retort _._ She was so incredibly sick of the nightmares, that she had once declared to herself that she would do _anything_ to get them to stop. But... could she do this?

_**'Just try it once. What have you got to lose, besides the nightmares?'** _

“...Fine,” Asuka softly whispered. She pulled back the blankets on Shinji's bed and gently, very gently, pushed the boy towards the other side of the bed to give herself some space. She then climbed into bed next to him, turning to put her back to Shinji before pulling the blankets back up.

There was barely enough space on the bed for one person, let alone two. Asuka felt like she would fall off during the night, and the sensation of Shinji's arm poking into her back made her feel strange. It was a struggle to banish the thought of that arm wrapped around her, but she eventually managed it shortly before drifting off.

When she had woken up with a mop of brown hair almost directly in her face, her brain turned on right before she could let out a surprised shriek that would likely have woken the entire floor.

All in all, it was the best goddamn night of sleep she had gotten in a decade, and she wanted more.

It was just too bad that the next night would see Misato come home and look in on Shinji.

* * *

Her guardian's intense stare bored into Asuka's head as she told her tale. She left out the fight she had lost -or had she won?- against herself, however.

Misato lowered her hands to the table. “I see. Asuka, why did you never think to speak to someone, to get _help_ with your nightmares?”

“Because I thought I could deal with them myself!” Asuka angrily replied. “I've had them for ten years, Misato, and they haven't broken me yet!”

“No, they haven't,” Misato said, reaching across the table to place a gentle hand over Asuka's trembling fists. “You're a strong girl, Asuka, but even the strong need support sometimes. I will still be there for you if you ever need a hand. Ignore the fact that I'm now the Commander of NERV-” A gasp of shock escaped from Asuka, to which Misato shook her head. “That doesn't matter here. Remember that I am your friend and guardian first, before being your superior officer.”

Asuka bowed her head slightly. “So what are you going to do? I know I shouldn't be sleeping in his bed, but...” she trailed off, trying not to think of returning to her room and her loneliness.

Misato yawned loudly, before standing up. “Like it or not, you two kids obviously need each other. I'm not going to pretend I understand why your nightmares stop when you're together, but you still can't just share a bed.” Asuka opened her mouth to protest, but Misato raised a hand to silence her. “Especially not that tiny cot in Shinji's room. So how does this sound?”

The girl's first instinct was to shout down the idea but the other part of her mind, the one that she had gone to war with, shoved a mental picture in front of her face. Herself, sitting up in a sweat-soaked bed and shivering violently in the moonlight. That was enough for her to agree.

Her bed was shoved against the exit to the balcony -she never used that door anyway- and two spare futons were laid out in her room. Asuka recognised them as the same ones all three of them had used during the week of synchronisation training. While Asuka got herself comfortable in one of them, Misato brought Shinji in to lay him out in the other.

Just as Misato was about to turn the light out and leave, she snapped her fingers as she remembered something.

“Oh right, with everything that just happened I almost forgot to ask,” Misato said as she knelt down beside the girl. “The Evangelions are, hah, _safe_ now, and Ritsuko would like to know if you'd be willing to get back into Unit-02, to find out if your mother is still in there. She wants to get Shinji into his as well. Something about how the neural connection might work better than the medical scanners, but she wants another Eva on standby just in case...” She struggled to find a suitable answer.

Asuka sat up. “In case Unit-01 goes berserk,” she quietly finished for Misato.

The tired woman gave a slow nod and a deep sigh. “Yeah. Don't feel like you _have_ to do this though. I made it perfectly clear that I will never force someone to pilot if they don't want to. I'm the Commander of NERV now, so what I say goes. Just say the word and you'll never have to see the inside of an entry plug again.”

The girl looked to her right, where Shinji was still fast asleep. “Ask me again in the morning.”

“You have some time to decide. Ritsuko still doesn't trust the Evangelions, so she's testing the hell out of them. I told her to let someone else do it and get some rest, but she insisted that she had to see the results herself.”

To Asuka's surprise, Misato leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before standing up. She repeated the gesture on Shinji before leaving the room, turning off the light and closing the door on her way out.

Asuka laid back down and stared at the ceiling for a while. Her right hand gently snaked out of her futon, curling itself around the left hand of the boy next to her.

“Mama,” she whispered to herself. “Will I see you again?”

* * *

A couple of days later, when the call came in that the Evangelions were ready, Asuka dropped onto the couch beside Misato one morning after breakfast. “Why does that bottle-blonde think the Evas will succeed where the medical scanners failed?”

“Um, she's stopped dying her hair now, Asuka,” Misato replied.

“Wait, what? When?”

Misato admitted she wasn't quite sure when it had started. Right now her friend's hair was an odd mix of blonde and brunette, but Ritsuko did not seem to care at all how it looked.

When Misato had summoned the nerve to ask her friend about it, Ritsuko had said, “Maya convinced me. I came back from Instrumentality with blonde hair because that was how I saw myself. Just like how that Suzuhara boy returned with both arms. When my hair started to grow in brown again, Maya stopped me when I reached for the dye and said that she wanted to see me with my natural colour.”

“Great,” Asuka sarcastically commented after Misato finished the explanation. “Now I can't use that insult anymore.”

Misato simply shook her head in disbelief. “Anyway when I asked Rits to explain about the Evas, she got excited and started babbling science at me,” she replied. “I think she said something about how they're far more sensitive, but would obviously only work on you pilots since we have baselines for you already. She just wasn't even going to consider that option until the Evas have their armour back on.”

“Makes sense I suppose. Last thing we need is an out-of-control Eva bringing NERV down around our heads. Especially Unit-01 with it's S2 Organ.”

A shudder rippled through Misato's body at the thought of a raging Evangelion, _without_ the major weakness of a limited operating time. The only thing that could stand a chance of stopping it would be another Eva.

“That's why you would be going first. You'll get to see if your mother came back with Unit-02, and then help us restrain Unit-01 if necessary.”

Asuka sighed and leaned back against the couch, rubbing her face with both hands. “Alright, let's just go and get this over with,” she declared as she jumped to her feet.

Shinji was collected and the trio made their way down the stairs to the parking lot. Asuka got in the back with Shinji and buckled him in. Misato's insane driving habits had not been deterred in the slightest by the state of Tokyo-3's roads. Her tongue was sticking out of her mouth in concentration as she ducked and weaved around what little traffic there was. Only when the Renault was locked into the car train and descending into the Geofront did Misato relax and speak up.

“I thought you would have been more enthusiastic about getting to pilot again,” she said.

“I was,” replied Asuka, grabbing hold of the front seats and pulling herself forward. “When you told me about how the Evas mysteriously reappeared in the cages, I was ecstatic for a moment. But then I remembered my mother speaking to me in Instrumentality. I started questioning whether or not she could possibly be in Unit-02 as well. That... kind of blunted my enthusiasm. I stopped thinking about it for a while because the Evas needed to be checked over. When you broke the news to me, that same question came back.”

“What do you hope the answer will be?”

Asuka slumped back into her seat. “I still don't know...”

The girl's melancholy expression copied itself to Misato's face, and the car was silent as she drove off the train when it docked and proceeded at a sedate pace into NERV HQ.

Misato took Shinji's hand when the trio were out of the car. “I'll take him with me while you go change into your plugsuit.

“Fine, I don't need him peeking in on me anyway.”

The new Commander of NERV halted in her tracks and sighed as she turned back to face the girl. “Asuka, you know he would never do that, even if he were lucid.”

Asuka didn't feel like arguing, and simply waved her hand in dismissal as she trotted off to the changing room. She had originally believed that Shinji was just like his stooge friends when first arriving in Japan, but the only time she could have rightfully called him a pervert was when she had her first meeting with Pen-Pen, who had startled her into running out of the bathroom naked.

The look on Shinji's incredibly red face had driven Asuka to reflexively deliver a kick that had obviously told the boy what to expect if he ever tried to sneak a peek. Since then, Shinji apparently did not even so much as _think_ of it, to Asuka's very well hidden disappointment.

Around her, NERV's hallways were busy. Almost every employee had been accounted for by this point. Asuka stood and stared at the sign above the door leading into the female changing rooms for a moment, as people walked past her carrying documents and tools. Someone soon bumped into her, and she scurried into the room with an apology directed at her back. Her locker was yanked open, and Asuka stared at its contents. Inside, just like every other time, a fresh plugsuit in a sealed bag awaited her.

The feeling of the red suit on her bare skin felt strange after several months spent entirely in normal clothing. She shivered slightly as the cold plastic started to leech the heat from her body. Asuka almost jumped into the shower to warm back up, but a knock at the door interrupted her.

“Asuka, we're waiting for you,” came a shy voice from the other side. “Is everything alright?”

“Huh? Yeah, I'm fine,” Asuka called back. The shower would have to wait. She opened the door and almost walked into Lieutenant Ibuki, who apologised and stepped aside.

“Doctor Akagi's busy setting everything up, and Maj- _Commander_ Katsuragi is attending to a phone call, but said she would be there when we begin the activation test.”

Asuka said nothing, and merely nodded at the woman before striding off to the cages. Perhaps it was her gait, or maybe it was the bright red of her plugsuit, but whereas before the NERV employees seemed to pay her little attention, now they stood well aside as she passed. Some even nodded to her as they passed.

Cage Three, the resting place of Unit-02, was a hive of activity. Work crews swarmed all over the Evangelion and the catwalks surrounding it, performing last-minute checks on the behemoth. An entry plug was open, ready to receive the pilot. Asuka spent a couple of minutes staring into the giant green eyes of Unit-02 before climbing into the plug.

* * *

“Did I miss anything?” Misato asked as she stepped off the elevator and walked towards the balcony overlooking the lower level of the command centre. Ritsuko and the bridge officers were busy at their consoles, while Shinji sat in a chair nearby facing the holographic screen.

Shigeru answered without looking up from his terminal. “Negative, Commander. Pilot Soryu has just entered the plug and we're beginning activation.”

“Good. Open a channel.” Makoto tapped some buttons on his console, and then turned to nod at Misato.

“Asuka, how are you feeling?”

A giant communication window appeared on the holographic display before them. _“I'm fine, Mis- Commander.”_

Misato smiled wryly. “Just stick with calling me by my name. Hearing you call me 'Commander' makes me feel old. Begin activation test.” She looked down as the officers below her jumped to action, before muttering to herself, “Screw this...”

Ritsuko looked up to see Misato walking away. “Commander?” she called out

“Just a second!”

Misato walked out onto the same level as the scientist. At a raised eye from Ritsuko, she explained, “That stupid desk up there might have been fine for Ikari, but I don't have an ego problem.” Misato then walked over to where Shinji sat and rested a hand on his shoulder.

On the screen, Asuka quietly sat with her eyes closed as the LCL filled her plug. The orange liquid flowed over her head, and an explosion of bubbles appeared as she breathed out before sucking in a lungful of the oxygenated fluid. Misato tuned out the technicians as they went through the activation process and focused on the girl in front of her.

* * *

The giant red machine rumbled to life for the first time in several months, and Asuka once more found herself feeling like her limbs were too long for a moment as the cage appeared in her vision upon opening her eyes.

“ _Evangelion Unit-02 is activated. Synchronisation holding at... 37%?”_ the surprised voice of Ritsuko broke in. _“Considering everything that's happened, you're doing very well, Asuka.”_

“Of course I am,” Asuka muttered. The low synchronisation percentage didn't bother her as much as it would have last year. She _was_ a bit out of practice after all, and this was an activation test, not a sync test or a combat scenario. As such, she didn't feel like expending unnecessary effort until she had to. “Now please be quiet while I try to see if my mother is in here.”

Asuka switched off the comm window and leaned back in the command couch. She already felt like she knew what the answer would be. Despite the warmth of the LCL surrounding her, the entry plug still felt cold and lifeless. With the benefit of hindsight, Asuka now knew exactly what she had felt every other time.

The warmth of a mother's embrace.

Deciding that there was no harm in trying anyway, Asuka closed her eyes again and started to concentrate, conjuring up old thoughts of her mother's face.

“Mama,” she whispered. “Are you in here?”

* * *

“Sync ratio is slowly climbing,” reported Makoto. “39%. 42%. Holding steady at 45%”

“Did she do it?” Misato asked.

Ritsuko shook her head. “It's unknown at this time. The Evangelions are _supposed_ to require a soul to connect with their pilots. If Asuka truly did see her mother in Instrumentality, though, then that would mean that Kyoko Zeppelin-Soryu is no longer in Unit-02. But if that's the case, how did it activate and synchronise so easily?” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Despite her position as the single living woman who knew the most about the Evangelions, they never failed to give her headaches. “I would open the comm, but I have a suspicion that all I'd get is some angry German expletives from her before she closed it again.”

Misato nodded in agreement. “Let's just wait for her to call us, then.”

Thirty long, pensive minutes passed. During that time, Asuka's sync ratio continued to slowly climb, and eventually stabilised at 50%. A warning chime sounded on Maya's console, and she took a moment to digest the information.

“Commander, The MAGI have just detected an anomaly out in the ocean near Tokyo-3,” she announced.

Misato turned to look at the lieutenant. “What is it?”

“I'm not sure. It was only there for a second, not long enough to get a useful reading.”

“Keep a close eye on it. It may just be a glitch in our sensor systems, but let's not take chances.”

Five minutes afterwards, the comm window opened, and Misato's heart sank as she took in the defeated expression on Asuka's tired face.

“ _She's... gone. Mama's not in here anymore...”_

“Damnit,” Misato swore. “Alright, I'm sorry to hear that, Asuka. It's not much consolation, but your sync ratio has increased to 50%. I knew you wouldn't take long to boost it. I'll take Shinji to the change rooms and we can get started on Unit-01.”

“ _Wait,”_ Asuka said. _“Let me take him. I need a few minutes to clear my head before I start guarding him anyway.”_

A sidelong glance at Ritsuko was returned with a grudging nod, and the scientist ordered the shutdown sequence to commence. “We'll take half an hour to check the data we collected during this test and prepare Unit-01. That will also give us a bit of time to charge Unit-02's battery.” Ritsuko said. As a precaution, Unit-02 had been running entirely off the umbilical, with no power in reserve. “You may as well go get some lunch while you're at it.”

Nearby, ignored during the proceedings, nobody noticed the convulsing of Shinji's right hand as his blank stare remained locked on the redhead in front of him. By the time Asuka exited the Evangelion and arrived in the command centre, the twitching had stopped.

* * *

When Asuka reached the command centre, an LCL-stained towel thrown over one shoulder, Shinji was already standing up and moving towards her, as if he knew what was coming.

Placing a hand on his chest to stop him, Asuka examined his eyes for a moment. At first glance they appeared as empty as ever, but she could swear that there was now the faintest glimmer of life. He still didn't react to her close proximity however, and Asuka sighed in disappointment before taking him to the cafeteria.

A quick lunch of hot soup was consumed. Asuka knew from long experience that it was not a very good idea to have a large meal before stepping into an Evangelion. The taste of LCL in her mouth still sometimes made her stomach lurch, even more so now that she knew where exactly the LCL had originated from.

As the pair were about to leave, a doctor walked into the cafeteria and called out to someone, joining them at their table. The sight of a stethoscope around his neck made Asuka remember the results of surgery on Shinji's hand as she proceeded to the change rooms again.

The day after most of the medical personnel had returned, Misato had requested an expert to come in and reset the bones in Shinji's hand. The procedure had been quick and efficient, although the doctor did express some concern at the boy's utter lack of reaction to what was happening.

When asked what could have caused the injury, the man remarked that he had seen many injuries like this before, and the most common cause was a punch delivered to something unyielding, like a tree or wall. He had then asked whether Shinji was known to have anger problems, and Ritsuko had to hurriedly step in to change the subject, not wishing to reveal the boy's mental issues.

The thought of what could have caused Shinji to lash out and hurt himself occasionally popped up in both Asuka and Misato's minds, as it did now. However, Asuka's sudden arrival at the pilot changing rooms broke her out of her musing.

Getting Shinji into his plugsuit turned out to be depressingly easy, as without waiting for instruction he walked into the male side. Asuka almost followed him in, but she had to turn away with a red face as Shinji began unceremoniously disrobing in the middle of the room.

That didn't stop her from peeking through the almost-closed door with a sense of morbid curiosity.

_'Good thing Misato isn't here,'_ she thought. _'I don't need her telling me off for what I always accused Shinji of. She would be cackling for- oh mein Gott...'_

Shinji's shirt dropped to the floor, and Asuka got a full view of just how badly his physique had changed ever since the time all three pilots had to do a simulation test naked. Back then, Shinji had at least looked somewhat athletic, if a bit on the skinny side. Now he looked like someone recovering from anorexia. The regular meals and walks had begun to fill him out again, but there was no muscle definition anywhere on his body.

Turning away from the door, Asuka made a mental note to speak with Suzuhara about getting Shinji some more exercise. The sound of a clearing throat made her look up into the serious-looking face of Misato. Cursing her premature relief at the woman's absence, she began to explain what she had been doing, but Misato spoke first.

“Don't worry, Asuka. I know what you saw,” she said, sitting on a bench on the other side of the hallway and patting the seat next to her. “That unhappy expression told me everything.”

Asuka remembered that it was Misato who was the one that occasionally bathed Shinji, and snapped her mouth shut. She sat down next to the woman and the two of them waited patiently for the boy to exit.

“It breaks my heart every time I see how much of a twig my boy has become,” Misato said. “But we can only do so much for someone in his state.”

“I was just thinking that we should get Suzuhara to help out,” replied Asuka.

“He's the tall one, right?”

"Yeah, the one who's always holding hands with my best friend.”

“Hmm. I suppose we could try that, but...” Misato trailed off.

Asuka had a good idea of what her guardian was trying to say. “But you don't feel right ordering Shinji around like that,” she finished for Misato, who nodded while staring at the changing room door. “I know, I have the same feeling sometimes.”

“You know why that is, don't you?” Misato asked, glancing at Asuka. At the girl's confused look, Misato threw an arm around her shoulder. “It's because we both care about him too much.”

Asuka grumbled incoherently, but otherwise declined to comment.

A moment later, the door opened and Shinji stepped out in his blue and white plugsuit. The skintight uniform did absolutely nothing to disguise the boy's depleted frame. Misato sighed and let go of Asuka.

“Well, let's go,” she said as she stood up. “We've got Unit-01 in the test chamber, so take him there while I head to the observation room.”

* * *

Once again, Shinji seemed to know exactly what he was expected to do. Asuka stood on the catwalk in front of Unit-01's face and watched Shinji climb into the entry plug.

The mood in the test chamber was much less lively than in her own Evangelion's cage. The work crew assigned to Unit-01 barely spoke to each other, quietly getting everything ready. Asuka idly noted that the restraints holding the purple machine to the wall were almost twice as thick as the ones in the cages.

_'Makes sense, I suppose,'_ she thought. _'The Evas don't always seem to... **like** being tested.'_

As soon as the hatch closed on Shinji's entry plug and the catwalks began retracting, Asuka ran to her own entry plug and got in. Unit-02 came to life once more, and when the clamps released she walked the behemoth over to the entrance to the test chamber.

“Unit-02 in position,” she reported as she brought the machine to a halt.

“ _Acknowledged, Pilot Soryu,”_ answered a male voice over her comm. _“Bakelite injectors are prepped and ready, but Doctor Akagi isn't confident of their ability to keep Unit-01 from breaking out.”_

“I'll try to keep the Third from breaking anything if his outdated piece of junk goes mental.” Asuka couldn't help but let a bit of her old self through as she spoke. She decided it must have been the returning sensation of power she could feel in the machine.

Ritsuko's voice came through. _“We'll be counting on you, Asuka, but be careful. Your battery still isn't fully charged, so you won't have the full five minutes if something happens to your cable.”_

“Understood, I'll make it quick.”

* * *

In the observation room, Ritsuko looked over Maya's shoulder at the young woman's screen. “Let us hope you can. We don't know if we can reliably shut down the S2 Organ Unit-01 consumed, so don't let it turn into an endurance fight. Weapons are free, and you're clear to forcibly remove Shinji's entry plug if you feel that you won't be able to subdue Unit-01 itself.”

“ _You just do what you can, and I'll do what I do best,”_ Asuka curtly replied, closing the communication channel. Ritsuko shot a despairing look at Misato, who simply shook her head. The scientist stood up straight and gave the order for the test to begin.

Nothing happened.

“Is something wrong?” Ritsuko demanded.

“The signal was sent, ma'am,” Shigeru reported. “But Unit-01 rejected it.”

“Try again.”

The nothingness repeated itself.

While the two male technicians worked to find the problem, with Ritsuko leaning over them, Maya spun around in her chair. “Commander, that strange sensor reading has returned,” she reported. “Closer to shore this time too.”

“Any indication of what it is yet? A stray submarine or something?”

“Negative. It disappeared again. I'm running scans on the area though. Hopefully next time the MAGI will be able to get a solid reading.”

Misato folded her arms. “Whatever it is, I don't like it. Let me know the second you get something.”

“Aye, Commander.” Maya turned back to her console, and Misato looked back up at the holographic screen which showed Shinji in his entry plug. Nearby, Ritsuko stood upright and once again gave the order for the activation to begin.

For a moment, it seemed as if the third attempt had been a failure as well, but then...

“Evangelion Unit-01 is active!” came the voice of Makoto.

“Sync ratio is climbing. 60%. 75%.” A gasp of alarm exited Shigeru's mouth. “92! Unit-01 has passed 100% sync!”

“What?!” yelled Ritsuko. “Is Unit-01 trying to absorb Shinji again?!”

Shigeru stared at his screen for a moment, then sighed in relief. “Negative. Unit-01's sync ratio has halted at 160%. It's now slowly falling.”

Misato let out the breath she had been unaware she was holding. “How is Shinji?” she asked. On the screen, the boy in question had his eyes closed and appeared to have been unaffected by the sudden event.

“Everything seems normal now, Commander,” answered Ritsuko, looking between the technician's screens. “We're finally getting information on Shinji's brain patterns too. I'm going to have to take some time to analyse all this data with the MAGI, but it looks like my plan worked!”

“Well that's one piece of good news at least,” Misato remarked. “That's enough, let's shut it down for now.” Before her friend could voice a protest, she continued. “I don't want to push Shinji too hard. If you need more data, we can perform another test later.”

Ritsuko sighed, but acquiesced. “Very well. The data we've collected today should be enough for now. Begin shutdown sequence.”

The frown on Makoto's face as he turned around told the scientist what was happening before he even spoke. “Unit-01 rejected the signal, ma'am,” he said, confirming her fears.

* * *

Asuka was about to re-open the channel and ask what was happening. It had been close to five minutes since the activation started, and from her perspective Unit-01 had simply remained still. Just as her finger was about to press the comm button, a jolt of movement from the purple behemoth in front of her drew her attention.

Unit-01's head shot up from where it had been laying against its chest. It began twitching up and down slightly, almost as if it were sniffing the air. The giant slowly scanned the room, stopping for a moment upon noticing the observation window before continuing. When it saw Unit-02, something akin to a low growl emanated from its sealed mouth.

Asuka leaned into a fighting stance, moments before Unit-01 threw itself against the restraints securing it to the back wall of the test chamber. She winced at the horrendous screech of stressed metal.

“Misato,” she called, opening the comm channel. “Is Shinji alright?”

“ _Ritsuko says that he's fine,”_ Misato answered over the noise in the background after a few seconds. _“But his sync ratio is fluctuating wildly and Unit-01's refusing to acknowledge our commands, so get ready. Those restraints aren't going to last long.”_

 _  
_“Let me talk to him. Maybe I can calm him down.”

“ _You can try, but we lost visual as soon as his Eva started tearing itself free.”_

A second video screen opened, showing nothing but static. In front of her, one of Unit-01's leg restraints finally gave way, separating from the wall. The purple Evangelion paused for a moment and growled again at Unit-02, shaking the broken clamp off its leg.

With the pause, Asuka finally detected something on the very edge of her hearing coming from the static-filled comm window. She closed the channel to the observation chamber to remove one distraction, and turned up the volume on the other as far as she could.

“ _Zzzzzzopzzzzzzzstopzzzzz.”_

“Shinji?” Asuka hesitantly called out. “Can you hear me?”

The static diminished slightly, and Shinji's trembling voice came in slightly clearer, as did the image of his entry plug. _“No... stop... stop it...”_

Asuka took a slow step towards Unit-01. As soon as her foot contacted the floor, the growling of the purple Evangelion grew louder. It reminded Asuka of a guard dog giving a warning to an intruder. For now it appeared to be struggling with the remaining restraints.

“Shinji, please calm down.”

  
The static cleared. The boy was now growling through clenched teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. _“Stop it... leave me alone...”_

Through the comm window, Asuka could hear the sound of creaking plastic. Shinji was gripping the controls so tightly that the handles were beginning to warp in his hands. Deciding to play it safe, she moved back a pace, putting her back at the entryway to the chamber. However, her slow retreat was not enough to stop Unit-01 ripping its other leg free.

_'Scheiße_ ,' Asuka thought. Out loud she said, “What's the matter, Shinji? Don't you recognise my voice? It's Asuka!”

Shinji's eyes shot open. His pupils were like pinpricks as he glared through the comm window at her. _“You're not Asuka!”_ he screamed, and Unit-01's jaw locks shattered as it roared with him.

Later, Asuka would have to watch a recording to see what happened. One moment the two Evangelions were separated by the width of the testing chamber as well as the restraints on Unit-01's arms, then Unit-02 was suddenly laying on its back with the purple robot sitting atop its chest. The ruined clamps dangled on its arms for a few seconds before slipping off and falling to the ground with two loud clangs on either side of Unit-02's head.

“ _Stop! Using! Her! Face!!”_ Each word was punctuated by a wild punch directed at Unit-02's face. Fortunately for Asuka her Evangelion's hands were free, and she easily brought them up to catch each hit on her armoured forearms. She was surprised at just how little force there was behind each hit. They were not so much punches as they were swings of the arm. It was as if Unit-01 was simply throwing a tantrum, rather than trying to kill her.

With that realisation, Asuka relaxed slightly and conserved her energy, watching and waiting for the right moment. That moment came after a dozen more hits. Unit-01 drew its right hand back a little too far, and Asuka sprang up.

While Shinji could be considered proficient at hand-to-hand combat, he simply didn't have the years of experience that Asuka possessed, despite her occasional attempts at improving his ability. That combined with his emotional state made it easy for her to grab both of his Evangelion's arms, and in one quick move managed to reverse their positions. Now Unit-02 was sitting on top of Unit-01, holding the purple robot's arms out to the side against the ground, with their metal faces a few scant meters apart.

The comm window was still open, and Asuka could see Shinji breathing heavily while glaring at her. She herself was barely even winded. They maintained eye contact for a few seconds, before Shinji broke away and looked down as he started to tremble.

“ _D-damnit... why won't you leave me alone?”_ he cried. _“Don't I already suffer enough?!”_

Screwing up her face in confusion, Asuka replied, “What the hell are you talking about, _Blödmann?!”_

“ _Don't pretend you don't know!”_ Shinji let go of his controls, throwing his hands up into the air, and turned to the side, curling up in the command couch. Outside, Unit-01 ceased straining against Unit-02 and went limp. _“Whatever you are, just... please... stop using her face to torment me!”_

Things suddenly began to come together in Asuka's mind, and she looked away from the screen, deep in thought. The words he had mumbled while she carried him home which he was now repeating, the broken hand from where he must have tried to punch a hallucination and hit something solid, and his sudden unprovoked attack on Asuka just a moment ago.

However, before she could begin to explain the situation, a strangled gasp came through the comm. She looked back up and saw Shinji writhing for a moment before laying still. Too still.

“Shinji?” she hesitantly called out. There was no response. “Shinji?!”

Another comm window opened, with a frantic-looking Ritsuko on the other end. Alarms were ringing in the background. Familiar ones. _“Asuka, get onto a lift and head up to the surface!”_

Unit-02 stood up and turned around to face the test chamber window. “What happened to Shinji?!” Asuka angrily yelled.

The scientist was apparently more concerned with whatever was on her screen than the abrupt appearance of Unit-02's face in the window. _“He's just unconscious. That's not important right now. **Please** make your way to the Eva lift, we have little time!”_

Asuka glared both through the comm and with her Evangelion's four green eyes at the scientist, who alternated between looking off to the side, presumably at another screen, and directing a worried look at her. Finally, Ritsuko sighed and said, _“We have a Pattern Orange detected in the bay area. We need you topside just in case... in case it's another Angel.”_

Understanding dawned, and Asuka quickly propelled Unit-02 out of the test chamber, carefully stepping over the recumbent Unit-01 as she did so.

Ritsuko moved away from the comm window, and Maya took her place, giving Asuka a thumbs up and a hopeful grin. _“We only have a couple of usable exits, one armoury, and one power station you can connect to near your deployment zone,”_ she reported as Asuka discarded her power cable and locked her Evangelion into the lift. _“Unit-02 is only about half-charged, so if it is an Angel you will need to protect your cable at all costs._ _Unfortunately, our surveillance network on the surface hasn't been repaired yet, what with all our effort directed towards rebuilding the city. We're scrambling air units but you will still get there first.”_

“Right.” The lift shot upwards, and Asuka felt the g-forces push her into her seat. “Well, we have a moment. Is the idiot alright?”

“ _He should be okay, thanks to you. We finally managed to get through to Unit-01 when you had it pinned, and we knocked him out by increasing the LCL pressure in his plug.”_

Looking around suspiciously at the liquid surrounding her, Asuka asked, “You can do that?”

A sound of affirmation came through the comm window _“It's an emergency procedure to be used in case of a rebellious pilot. We... had to use it on Shinji before, after the Thirteenth Angel.”_

Turning her gaze upward at the rapidly approaching exit, Asuka closed her eyes and prepared herself for the sudden stop. The lift slammed into place on the surface, slightly harder than usual. The clamps released, and Unit-02 took its first steps on the surface in 2016.

Asuka moved first to the power station, plugging herself in and removing the countdown timer. Her next stop was the armoury building, where she grabbed two Pallet Rifles. There was little useful cover nearby, so she crouched behind the armoury building and reported in.

* * *

“Pattern Orange will be coming ashore in thirty seconds, and will be in Unit-02's visible range in ninety seconds,” Makoto announced.

The five officers had practically sprinted back to the command centre as soon as Unit-01 had been subdued. A giant map of the bay area now hung in the air ahead of them, with the locations of Unit-02 and the anomalous reading vividly marked. Misato thanked whatever deity still existed that NERV's satellites had apparently emerged from Third Impact unscathed. At least they had some way of viewing the surface, even if it was from cameras in orbit.

“The target is now on land. It's changed course and is heading for Unit-02's position.”

Misato frowned. “Are you sure? It's not heading for the Geofront?”

“Not unless it's taking the scenic route, ma'am.”

Ritsuko stepped up next to her friend. “We don't have Lilith in Terminal Dogma anymore. There's no longer a reason for it to try and break in. That is, if it _is_ an Angel.”

Not taking her eyes off the map, Misato asked, “You believe it's something else?”

“It's only a theory at the moment. The Twelfth and Sixteenth were only orange until they fully revealed themselves, and the Thirteenth was orange because it was a contaminated Eva. There have been no Angels with a true orange pattern.”

Makoto's voice interrupted their talk. “Thirty seconds until visual contact.”

Everyone's eyes were locked on the map as the seconds seemed to crawl by. Misato began to unconsciously bite her lower lip as the gap between the two dots slowly decreased.

She was so focused on the map that the sudden shout from Makoto almost made her jump. “Target is in range!”

“What do you see, Asuka?” Misato asked.

The only response from Unit-02 was a gasp, followed by shallow breathing and a strangled _“No...”_

“Asuka, report!”

“ _It... can't be...”_

“Damn,” Ritsuko breathed. “Her sync ratio is dropping. She's back down to 32%!”

Misato whirled around. “A psychic attack?”

“No, nothing of the sort. She's... scared.” Ritsuko looked up from Maya's screen.

Slamming her hands down on the console, Misato yelled, “Asuka! Please, talk to me! What do you see?!”

“ _It's... it's...”_

The next three words rooted everyone in the command centre to the spot.

“ _The Eva Series!!”_


	14. Chapter 14

_The spear sliced through the air and_ _stabbed_ _into Unit-02's upraised arm, only halting once it passed the elbow. Before Asuka could even summon the breath to scream in agony as her own arm split in front of her face, seven more spears shot down out of the sky and stabbed into and through the deactivated robot._

_Asuka keenly felt every wound as it copied itself onto her own body through her link to the ruined machine she piloted. Unit-02 was deactivated. Her mother was gone once more. Why was she still feeling the pain? Why were the wounds transferring so vividly to her own body?_

_The searing agony of nine fatal wounds prevented her mind from being capable of latching onto an answer. She barely even noticed as the white demons landed around their downed prey, but she felt their claws and teeth tearing into her Evangelion as clearly as if it were her own body being ravaged by wild beasts._

_Blood poured from her wounds in torrents, flooding her plugsuit, but she did not even feel close to blacking out. It was as though they were somehow prolonging her death, making it last as long as possible._

“ _-ka!”_

_Why was she not dead yet? She was an Evangelion pilot. An elite soldier trained to protect the planet. Ready to give her life if it meant the continued existence of the human race._

_Did she not deserve a quick death worthy of a warrior?_

“ _-ond!”_

_Where was her mother?_

“ _-hear me?!”_

_Where was Shinji?_

“ _ASUKA!!”_

* * *

“Damnit!” Misato slammed her fist into the console she was leaning over, ignoring the pain as she repeated the gesture. The only thing to be heard from Unit-02 was shallow, fear-filled panting.

“Do we have _anything_ left of our static defenses?” Ritsuko demanded. “Anything at all?!”

Shigeru's fingers flew over his keyboard. “Negative. All of Tokyo-3's armaments are offline.”

Makoto cut in. “Air support will be in firing range in twenty seconds!”

“Fat lot of good they'll do against an AT-Field...” Misato muttered darkly. Her eyes were closed and all she could focus on was the sound of Asuka's fear in her ears.

Ritsuko pulled her up by the shoulder. “If they can buy even a few seconds, that will be more time for us to think of something!” she very nearly shouted at Misato.

“And just what the hell is there?!” Misato retorted, shoving the scientist's arm away. “Asuka's paralysed, conventional weapons can't do a damn thing, and our only other pilot has just been knocked out!”

“Air support has engaged the target! They...” Makoto trailed off in surprise, which drew the attention of his arguing superior officers. “They've stopped the target from advancing! Their weapons are hitting it directly!”

“What?!” Misato and Ritsuko both exclaimed at the same time.

“Checking... Confirmed! The target has not raised an AT-Field, and is being slowly pushed back by our forces.”

Anticipating the next order, Makoto typed a few commands. The giant map above shrunk to one side and was joined by the view from a mounted camera on a gunship. While there was no sound, the picture clearly showed several missiles impacting on a massive white humanoid figure in the distance. Its arms were raised up in front of its face and chest, and as the bridge crew watched, the beast took a step backwards as more fire erupted in front of it.

On Ritsuko's command, the view zoomed in. Each missile hit and cannon shot tore chunks out of of the white Evangelion's body, but the pieces were quickly regenerated as an orange liquid flowed into the wound and solidified before turning white to match the rest of the body.

“Looks like we're at a stalemate, at least until our forces run out of ammunition,” said Misato with a hand on her chin. “But we still need to think of something.”

“I was expecting them to buy us a little time as the target got distracted,” Ritsuko replied. “This is much better. They should be able to hold it off for a few minutes, if we're lucky.”

Misato nodded. “Agreed. Hyuga, order the air units to slow their attacks and conserve their ammo. Keep the target where it is for the time being.”

“Copy that, transmitting orders now.”

Ritsuko sighed heavily and leaned on Maya's chair. “Still, what can we do?” The young woman in front of her was focused on the battle, and as Ritsuko's gaze took in the data that was streaming across the screen, she raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. “Wait a second...”

Standing upright, she gently pushed Maya's chair out of the way and leaned in closer. “Commander,” she said. “I believe a solution to the stalemate has just presented itself.”

Misato walked up next to her and tried to make sense of Maya's screen. “Is... is Shinji awake?”

The scientist shook her head, but a smile still formed on her face. “No, but Unit-01 is.” She tapped some keys, and the battle screen was replaced by a diagram of the lift shaft that Asuka had just recently used. A blip was quickly making its way towards the surface, and despite not using an elevator it was moving almost as rapidly as if it were moving on a horizontal plane.

* * *

Purple claws grasped a support, and pulled the beast upward. Massive legs perched on that same support for just long enough to propel it towards the next ledge. The distance between Unit-01 and the surface vanished quickly. The lift cradle had been retracted after Unit-02 disconnected from it, so now all that stood in the way was metal and concrete on a sheet of armour plating to cover the gap in the ground.

Unit-01 _accelerated._

The final support cracked with the force of its kick-off, sending the ruined metal tumbling down the shaft, and the purple beast burst through the obstruction head-first as if it were paper.

The impact sent masonry and steel flying for several hundred meters in every direction. A particularly large chunk slammed into the side of the frozen red Evangelion's face nearby, with enough force to knock its head into the building it was hiding behind.

* * *

Inside the entry plug, Asuka hissed and rubbed the side of her head. While her sync ratio had been too low to properly feel whatever had just hit her, the neural feedback was enough to knock the dazed redhead out of her waking nightmare.

“What the hell just happened?” she asked herself. Her sync ratio was starting to climb again, bringing with it the comforting sensation of strength and power.

“ _Asuka! Are you alright?!”_ came a voice through her comm. Misato was on the screen, looking worried.

Waving off the question, Asuka returned both hands to her controls before asking, “I wasn't imagining things, was I? That's really-”

“ _Yes.”_ Misato nodded grimly. Asuka gripped the controls tighter as her teeth clenched. _“It's one of the Mass Production Evas. The good news is that it doesn't seem to have an AT-Field. Unit-01's already on its way to neutralise the threat, so-”_

“Wait, Shinji's awake again?” Asuka interrupted.

“ _No, he's still unconscious, but Unit-01 is active.”_

The grimace on the redhead's face faded and was replaced by a grin Misato had seen many times before. There was no humour in that expression.

“Good, that makes me feel a bit better about what I'm about to do.”

“ _Asuka? What are y-”_ Misato began, before a stab of Asuka's finger cut the connection.

Unit-02 stood up to its full height, discarding the unused pallet rifles. The power plug on its back shot away, retro rockets firing to soften its landing on the ground. By the time it came to a halt, the red Evangelion was already away, sprinting towards the white demon.

A timer appeared next to Asuka's head, reading 02:42:53 and beginning to count down.

With a cry of “Out of my goddamn way!”, Unit-02 flew past the slowly stomping Unit-01, pushing the purple robot aside as it passed. Ahead, the aircraft stopped their assault and pulled away, obviously alerted to Asuka's sudden charge.

The icy ball of fear tried to make itself known again, but it was melted by the white-hot fury she now felt as she closed in on the source of many of her sleepless nights. It lowered its arms, just in time to receive a giant red fist in its face at a respectable percentage of the speed of sound. For a fraction of a second before the white Evangelion fell, she noticed that the beast's brainpan was already missing, as were most of the teeth in its disgusting red-lipped mouth.

* * *

“Well that's interesting,” remarked Shigeru. “It's retained most of the damage Pilot Soryu inflicted on it during their last battle.” The holographic screen changed, shifting to a view from one of the VTOLs still flying near the two battling giants, and the officers could now see both the broken skull and jaw, as well as a jagged scar on the stomach of the Mass Production Evangelion.

“Really?” Misato asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shigeru nodded. “We were here until the very end. All three of us, and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki.” He lowered his head and shuddered. “We saw everything that happened. Asuka tore into them like she was possessed, she even bisected some of them. I'll never forget the carnage. But then... they got back up anyway.”

Nearby, Maya's shoulders were beginning to shake as she recalled what happened when Unit-02's power ran out. A hand dropped softly onto her shoulder, and the young woman looked up to see Ritsuko smiling reassuringly at her as her hand gently squeezed. Maya raised her own hand and placed it over Ritsuko's, returning the smile.

“I just hope Asuka gets some relief after this,” Misato mused. “Perhaps killing one of them will help keep the poor girl's nightmares at bay.”

“ _I_ just hope she doesn't get caught up in her revenge and run out of power,” replied Ritsuko, as she and her protégé finally broke eye contact.

* * *

The timer read 02:30:00.

Asuka's mouth twisted more and more into a psychotic smirk as she set about getting her revenge. As her target attempted to remain vertical, a knee to its midsection was followed by another right hook, shattering its jaw even further and dropping the white giant to its knees. Unit-02's right leg delivered a swift kick to its ribcage, knocking it over onto its back.

Moving to stand above it, Unit-02's right shoulder pylon opened up, and several _very_ sharp spikes fired out of the launcher and buried themselves in the white Evangelion's head and neck, pinning it to the ground. The creature thrashed about, trying to free itself while also attempting to swipe at the red Evangelion above it.

“That's wiped the smirk off your face, hasn't it?” Asuka manically laughed. She fired several more stakes into the body for good measure, before opening her left pylon and retrieving the Progressive Knife within with her right hand. She was about to carve its chest open and smash the core, when the waving arms gave her a better idea.

The knife blade flashed in the sunlight as it descended, stabbing deeply into the giant's left arm and also pinning it to the ground. Unit-02's foot stomped down, pushing it deeper to prevent her enemy's writhing from working it loose. The red foot shifted to a spot just under the white Evangelion's right armpit, and Unit-02's hands grasped onto its free arm. Beneath its armour, massive bio-mechanical muscles flexed.

And Unit-02 tore the beast's right arm completely out of its socket.

The struggling creature's efforts redoubled with the loss of its arm. Asuka stood above the crippled Evangelion and basked in the joyful sensation of revenge. Although she didn't believe the Mass Production Evangelions were capable of feeling fear, and despite its lack of eyes, she still waved the beast's severed arm in front of its face before idly tossing it behind her.

The timer hit 02:00:00, and a power warning beeped at her.

In front of her, a comm window opened with Misato on the other side. _“As much as I truly enjoy sitting here watching you get some revenge, Asuka, you need to finish this,”_ she said. _“Ritsuko says that you need to destroy both the core and the Dummy Plug to ensure that thing stays neutralised.”_

“I'll be fine, Misato. I still have two minutes. This bastard hasn't even felt a fraction of the agony I suffered.” Asuka brutally kicked the white Evangelion's ribcage as she spoke.

“ _Please, just make it quick, I-”_ Misato's eyes wandered to the side, and she did a double take at whatever she saw, screwing her face up. _“Uugh... Unit-01 is...”_

Asuka turned Unit-02 around. Before her, where the severed arm had landed, Unit-01 was crouched. It had picked up the discarded limb and was now eating it. While she was too far away to hear it, she could still imagine the sickening sound of bone and sinew parting as it fed. When it noticed the red Evangelion staring at it, Unit-01 growled threateningly, trying to protect its meal. It then turned away from Unit-02 before resuming eating.

_'Well it's definitely not **Shinji** doing that...' _Asuka thought disgustedly. The bloodlust started to fade from her mind as she witnessed the Evangelion's cannibalism.

Turning back to the crippled giant beneath her, she fired the last spike remaining in her launcher into its left hand, and pulled her knife out. The stab wound slowly healed over, and the bloody stump of its right arm had already closed up. Its struggles had greatly slowed down, but it was still writhing as Unit-02 knelt down next to it, preparing to carve its torso open.

The knife stabbed deeply into the beast's chest, and Asuka tore a ragged line down towards its belly. Working quickly, she laid the weapon aside and placed both of Unit-02's hands on either side of the wound, tearing it further open. Before the orange liquid could attempt to close the wound, Asuka plunged a hand into its upper torso and yanked out the long cylindrical tube that was the Dummy Plug.

She stared at it for a moment, before enclosing the plug in both hands and squeezing them together as if it were a soda can. When her Evangelion's hands opened, the tube was only a tenth of its original size as it crunched into the ground.

Reaching into the chest cavity once more, Unit-02's hand searched for a few seconds before finding its target. This was harder to pull out, due to the Evangelion's strange regenerating capabilities, but Asuka finally managed to extract the S2 engine from within its body.

Along with the orb came numerous arteries attached to it, several snapping off as they stretched past their limit. The core itself was not the usual red colour, at least not completely. Swirls of orange, the same shade as the liquid that caused its wounds to regenerate, drifted around the orb.

Asuka picked up her discarded knife, and was about to plunge it into the S2 engine when an angry roar from behind stopped her. Unit-01 had dropped the mutilated arm, and was now slowly advancing on Unit-02 and the half-dead Mass Production Evangelion, still chewing on a piece of flesh.

The timer hit 0:30:00, and turned red as the warning sounded again, much louder this time. Asuka glared at it for a moment before returning her attention to Unit-01.

It roared again, perhaps attempting to drive away what it saw as competition for food. Asuka gave the core a final angry yank as she stood up, and the last of the connections broke away. The white beast shuddered and arched its back, before collapsing and laying still.

“ _Asuka!”_ Ritsuko suddenly said. _“Normally we would request that you hold onto that thing so we can study it, but I believe it's become corrupted and dangerous. I don't like the way Unit-01 is looking at it either. You must destroy it!”_

Another roar came out of Unit-01's mouth as it took another step closer, and Asuka's temper flared.

“Shut the hell up!” she yelled, turning on her Evangelion's external speakers. The purple robot's jaw slammed shut for a moment, before opening again and bellowing louder.

Asuka had had enough. As she turned the volume on the speakers up as far as they could go, she took a deep breath, before screaming at the top of her lungs. The jaw locks on Unit-02's face gave way, and the red Evangelion echoed its pilot's yell as it leaned forward. It gripped the S2 engine in both hands, and brought it rapidly upwards to meet its descending forehead.

Whereupon the device promptly cracked and exploded in Unit-02's face.

By the standards of an N2 missile strike, the explosion was not very powerful, but it was still enough to knock both Evangelions to the ground, just as Unit-02's power finally ran out and turned Asuka's entry plug red as its emergency backup power kicked in.

The dazed redhead slumped into her seat and groaned, rubbing her forehead. She would not be allowed to relax in silence, however. Misato's reprimanding voice quickly came into her entry plug. _“Pilot Soryu, that was quite possibly the most stupid and dangerous thing I've ever seen you do!”_

She grinned ruefully at her guardian and superior officer, and after a few seconds Misato returned the smile.

“ _But I'm glad you're alright, Asuka,”_ she continued. _“Recovery teams are on their way. Unit-01 was knocked out and has shut down, so I guess I should thank you for that ridiculous stunt.”_

Asuka chuckled. “Maybe next time I should just headbutt Unit-01.”

The smile on Misato's face grew a little wider for a moment, before she turned serious again. _“Do you feel better now?”_ she asked.

Sitting back upright, Asuka sighed and thought about the question for a moment. “It's far too early to tell just yet,” she finally responded. “But if those things still haunt my dreams after today, I'm going to be angry.”

“ _How did revenge taste?”_

Asuka leaned back and closed her eyes, resting her head on the seat with a satisfied grin. “As sweet as the chocolate Shinji gave me.”

* * *

The only good thing that could have been said about the sudden appearance of an enemy thought dead was that there were no casualties. The citizens of Tokyo-3 were very well used to the alarms, and many people found themselves automatically heading for the nearest shelter without a second thought. Despite government reports that there were supposed to be no more Angel attacks, nobody wanted to risk being caught in the open in case they were wrong.

While one of the pilots had to be taken, once more, to the medical wing, a freshly showered Asuka had been brought to a room to face Misato and Ritsuko, and they were now going through possibly the most boring part of any engagement in Asuka's opinion: the debriefing.

"To answer your first question, Asuka," Ritsuko said, sitting across from the redhead, "Shinji is unconscious but stable. As far as we can tell, he's simply asleep.”

“And I've given the order to let him stay like that for a while,” added Misato from her spot next to the scientist.

Asuka relaxed into her chair, knowing there would be no need to be formal in front of the two adults. “Well, after today I guess we could all do with a nap.”

Misato smiled. “Unfortunately, this comes first. Rits?”

At a tap of a button on the console in front of Ritsuko, the lights in the room dimmed as the holographic display unit built into the briefing room table flared to life. A recording appeared and started playing, showing the white Evangelion moments before Unit-02 had engaged it.

Focusing on the view, Ritsuko said, “Since we didn't have any functional surveillance equipment topside besides the VTOLs, our available information on the MP Eva you fought is limited to what we saw through the cameras on the aircraft and your own eyes, Asuka. Based on its injuries when it came ashore, the MAGI have identified it as Unit-09, the first Eva you eliminated during the attack on NERV last year.”

Another button press, and the recording froze on a close-up of Unit-09's face. Next to it, an image appeared of the same Evangelion with the time-stamp showing the date of SEELE's attack. Despite the horrendous damage inflicted to its skull and jaw, Unit-09 had its mouth open and lips curled upward as if laughing.

The sight of the white Evangelion's grinning face caused visible tension in Asuka's posture. To Misato, the girl looked as if she was about to leap onto the table and try to punch the hologram. Misato cleared her throat, and Ritsuko took the hint, changing the view to a series of recordings displaying the wounds Unit-09 took from the missiles and cannons, and the orange fluid seeping in to seal them. The girl calmed down once the face was no longer visible.

“We know that S2 engines and Angel cores grant regenerative capability to the entity in possession of them, but this is the first time I've ever seen such a rapid rate of healing,” Ritsuko continued as she put a hand to her chin.

Asuka grinned. “I'll be honest, I was half-expecting that thing to start growing its arm back when I ripped its old one off. Once I saw that wasn't happening, I knew it would be easy to rip out its plug and core.”

“Indeed. Speaking of which...” Ritsuko changed the display again. Now it showed the large orange and red core held up in Unit-02's hand. “I really would have loved to study this but judging from its appearance, something seems to have... perhaps infected the core, spreading to the rest of the Evangelion.”

“That could explain why it wasn't able to keep up its regeneration, if its power source is corrupted,” Misato said thoughtfully.

“That is the current theory,” Ritsuko replied. “The injuries inflicted to Unit-09 by Unit-02 didn't heal nearly as fast as those caused by the gunships, which suggests that perhaps the initial assault drained its energy to a point where it couldn't heal quickly enough. It used more energy to heal itself than it could generate, especially when Unit-02 entered the fray.”

The display shifted once more, showing an injury being filled in by orange liquid.

“I _think_ that's LCL,” Asuka noted, pointing at the screen. “Even the stuff that closed its wounds looked like LCL when I was ripping into it.”

“Yes...” Ritsuko leaned in, staring intently at the image. “But how could LCL do that?”

Misato waved her hand in dismissal. “That's not important right now. There's a far more critical question to ask.” She leaned on the table. “An MP Eva came back from the dead. What's to stop the others from doing the same?”

Ritsuko paled at the question, while Asuka gazed downward. After a few seconds of silence, she looked back up and said, “If they're stupid enough to come back as well, I'll send them to meet their friend. My mother may not be in Unit-02 anymore, but I'm still an Evangelion pilot. It doesn't matter if it's an Angel or another Eva or _whatever._ If it threatens us, I'll destroy it.”

Misato beamed, and even Ritsuko allowed herself to smile slightly at the girl's declaration.

“Good to hear, Asuka. I don't think there's anything else to discuss on this matter, so you can go for now,” Misato said.

Asuka stood up. “Right, I'm going to go check on Shinji before I get something to eat.”

“I've already instructed the nurses to let you see him,” Ritsuko mentioned as the redhead started to leave. “But... please don't wake him up.” Asuka stopped at the door, turning back to look at her for a moment, before nodding and leaving.

While waiting for the elevator to take her down to the medical wing, Asuka's eyes were unfocused as she thought to herself.

_'Just what the hell happened to Shinji to make him believe I'm not real?'_ she wondered, recalling Shinji's strange moment of lucidity.

“ _ **You're not Asuka!”**_ The scream of his denial echoed in her mind.

_'Should I even be near him? What if he wakes up and tries to attack me again?'_

_'Maybe it would be better for him if I didn't go down there...'_

She turned around, and was about to leave when the ding of the elevator's arrival sounded behind her. Asuka looked over her shoulder at the empty elevator car.

After a while, the doors closed.

Asuka stared at the elevator buttons for a while. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her own face in the reflective door, which then hardened as she gazed into her own sapphire orbs. She pushed the button to take her to the hospital floor.

_'No, I'm not going to be scared of you, Third Child. If you want to try and push me away... like I did to you... it'll take a lot more than just trying to hurt me..'_

* * *

Misato watched the door close behind Asuka, before sighing and turning to her friend.

“Have I mentioned recently that I wish we never had to use children for this?” she asked.

Ritsuko hummed, forgoing a proper response to the clearly rhetorical question as she plugged a storage device into the projector. The hologram of the white Evangelion disappeared, to be replaced by a Progressive Knife next to some tools. Misato raised an eyebrow when she spotted what seemed to be a chainsaw.

“What's this, do we have a problem with our weapons now?”

“Judging by today's performance, our current armaments should suffice. Our R&D department has been restored enough to begin a new project. There are a couple of ideas that we played around with a bit last year, but we had more important things to devote real time and money towards.” Ritsuko waved at the screen. “Now though, we can actually start work on something. What I need from you is a decision on what the department should prioritise.”

“Is this really the best time to bring up research?” Misato asked, raising her other eyebrow to match its twin.

The scientist shrugged. “No time like the present. Might as well get it out of the way while we're here. And don't forget, NERV will either be dissolved or turned into an R&D company soon enough. Why not get a head start on the decision that lets people keep their jobs?”

“And are you asking me because I'm the one in charge, or because you want my opinion as a friend?"

“Yes.”

A tank of LCL appeared on the display in front of them, with a silhouette of a human floating in it. “This one is rather ambitious. We've discovered that LCL, when purified and mixed with certain ingredients, is capable of some amazing healing properties. The plan is for a healing 'tank' that we could fully immerse critically wounded victims in. We would still need to realign bones and remove foreign objects like bullets, but then the compound could also be used to speed up recovery after surgery. Injuries that would normally take weeks to heal could be done in a matter of days.”

The view changed, showing an arm with a tube filled with liquid around it. “It would also be easy enough to shrink it down to a 'wearable' state. After all, it's a waste to dunk someone in a tank when all they have is a knife wound on their arm. We could even produce bandages soaked in the compound, for use on minor injuries.”

Misato whistled through her teeth. “Impressive. If we had this last year, it might have saved Shinji a lot of time in a hospital bed.”

Ritsuko nodded, and displayed the other file. “Secondly... well this last one isn't really a _new_ idea. It's just a plan to try and improve prosthetic technology. Our work on the Evangelions let us make some incredible jumps there, to the point where what we have is adequate for civilian use, and even some athletes. But they're not perfect yet. In simple terms, the very best prosthesis available can get a person back to ninety, ninety-five percent of their original capability.”

“That doesn't sound so bad. Ninety-five percent of an excellent runner would still be great,” Misato reasoned.

“But it's that last five percent that could mean everything. Besides, It's not just athletes.” Ritsuko tapped at the projector controls, and brought up a man in a military flight-suit. “For example, this is Nawara Van...” She squinted for a moment before giving up. “I'm not even going to try and pronounce that last name. He was a fighter pilot in the American air force before he was shot down. While he ejected in time, shrapnel from his own jet severed his leg below the knee. The best prosthesis was not enough to bring him back to the level required for pilots, and he ended up being discharged for medical reasons.

“So there we are, Commander. Two ideas, but for now we only have the ability to focus on one at a time,” Ritsuko finished.

Misato examined the plans for several minutes, occasionally asking for clarification on certain points. Eventually, she sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Tell me, Rits. Which one would _you_ want to work on?” she asked.

Without hesitation, Ritsuko replied, “The healing tank. It would be the easiest one right now. LCL is plentiful, as are the ingredients needed. All we really need to do is design the tanks and the canisters.”

“How soon could you get a prototype of the large tank finished?”

“About a month, I believe. It would probably take longer to test than build.”

Misato nodded and stood up. “Then tell the research department to get started on that. Is there anything else to discuss?”

Ritsuko tapped on her PDA. “Just a couple of things. The dead MP Eva appears to be melting into LCL, which is flowing back into the ocean.”

“That's a shame. I was hoping to throw it in the hole with the Angels,” Misato remarked, before tossing her head back and finishing off her now lukewarm cup of coffee.

“And that's the second thing. The hole in the Geofront roof is completely fixed now. We've started dumping the smaller bodies in there first, and something... interesting is occurring.”

Misato froze with the cup to her lips, staring suspiciously over the rim. “Interesting how?”

“The corpses are turning into the same material as the Geofront shell. But instead of reinforcing the dome, the material is... growing upwards and filling the pit. They also appear to be far more efficient than simple steel. The remnants of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Angels alone have filled the pit more than our calculations predicted. If we had known that sooner, we could have used their bodies to fix the hole in the roof as well.”

The commander and the scientist started heading for the door. “That's good, isn't it?” Misato asked.

  
  
“Very good. If the trend continues, we may only need to bulldoze the rubble into the hole after the Tenth Angel is disposed of.”

"But why?" Misato pressed. "Why would a system designed to patch up holes in a space ship decide to fill a hole just because it's got different material?"

"Sorry, I don't have an answer to that," Ritsuko admitted. "You'd have to ask whoever designed the ship."

The two friends parted ways outside the briefing room, heading back to their respective offices. Ritsuko to start analysing Shinji's neural data, and Misato to collect her things before heading home. As she reached the door to the dreary black office, her secretary got the woman's attention.

“Commander, a message came in for you about half an hour ago,” the young dark-haired woman nervously said. “They said it was very important, but... you were in a meeting and I didn't know if you would have wanted to be disturbed.”

Misato had to stop for a moment, slightly confused about why her secretary had not contacted her if the message was significant, before she recalled the previous occupant of her position. “That's alright. Just remember something,” she said, patting the air in a reassuring gesture. “I'm not Commander Ikari. If you have something that requires my attention, then by all means get in touch with me. I'm not going to be annoyed with you if I'm interrupted.”

The woman exhaled, letting out all the stress that had built up over the last thirty minutes with the breath, then nodded at Misato with a smile.

“Now, what was the important message?”

The secretary told her. Misato's mouth hung open in shock, before she walked quickly into the office. She emerged seconds later, struggling to put her jacket on, and running to the elevator. Her secretary contacted the aircraft hangar, ordering a VTOL to make ready for the Commander.

* * *

On the shore a girl awoke, and stared up at the late afternoon sun.

She wearily got to her feet after a few minutes, and absently began to brush the sand from her clothing. She stopped after a moment, staring at the hand she had just been using. The sand particles that had gotten into her uniform were starting to irritate her skin, and for possibly the first time in her life, the girl felt... annoyed.

It was an... interesting feeling. But not entirely unwelcome.

Never before had she felt the need to be concerned with either how she looked or her own comfort, but now she found herself focusing on removing every speck of sand as she resumed her task. When her school uniform had been wiped clean, the girl spent a long while gazing at the setting sun. Eventually, she heard a faint sound from behind, and turned to look.

A large stream of orange liquid was slowly making its way down the beach towards her. Intrigued, she stepped aside as it neared, and watched it seep into the ocean where it rapidly dissipated.

The girl crouched down next to the liquid, and dipped a hand into the flow.

“I see... you are returning to your brothers,” she softly said after a few seconds. “Do what you will. Now that I have returned, I can help protect humanity from the likes of you. They _will_ prevail, and they _will_ earn their right to exist.”

Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, she felt a prickling sensation in the back of her head.

“ _ **This was only the first, and the weakest,”**_ said a strange, and yet very familiar, voice in her mind. The prickling intensified, becoming a painful throbbing. _**“Humanity must face all of my Revenants. Do you truly believe they will survive?”**_

Through the headache, the girl smiled, recalling a fragment of a borrowed memory. “Humanity has the will, and so it deserves to survive. I believe in them.”

Despite the absence of a person to look at, the girl could sense the smile on the face belonging to the voice.

“ _ **We shall see.”**_

She pulled her hand out of the liquid, and the pain in her head ceased. She collapsed backwards onto the sand, already tired after her return and now exhausted from the sudden mental contact.

As her vision dimmed she spared one last irritated thought for her clothing, now covered in sand again.

An unknown amount of time passed before she opened her eyes. A white ceiling hovered over her head. Before she could even begin to wonder where she was, a fireball seemed to suddenly appear in front of her.

“Welcome back to the real world,” Asuka remarked with a smirk on her face. “Wondergirl.”


	15. Chapter 15

Rei tried to  sit upright , but her tired arms quickly gave out and dropped her back down onto the bed. The grin on Asuka's face disappeared as she tried again.

“Looks like you're still exhausted from whatever happened to you, so just lie down,” Asuka said. “It's only been a couple of hours since you were brought to the hospital.”

Rei looked around the room as much as she could from her horizontal position. The incredibly familiar scent of disinfectant confirmed her location. Her gaze drifted back to the girl standing next to her bed, and Rei noticed that something looked slightly off about Asuka.

“It is... good to see you once more, Pilot Sor-,” she quietly said, before a raised hand from Asuka stopped her.

“No, none of that. Just call me 'Asuka' from now on. We've known each other long enough.”

Rei blinked, and her tired mind finally realised why Asuka looked different.

The Second Child's almost-permanently attached neural connectors were missing, and her fiery red hair was now hanging freely down her back. She raised an eyebrow, but chose not to comment on it, deciding that she would be told if it were important.

“Very well... Asuka,” she agreed. “Then I would like to request that you refrain from calling me 'Wondergirl'.”

Asuka quirked an eyebrow. “Why, what's wrong with that nickname?”

“It is not the nickname itself, but rather the way you always made it sound insulting.”

“...Oh,” Asuka replied lamely, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. “Um, sorry about that?”

“It is alright.” The sides of Rei's mouth twitched upwards slightly. She hadn't expected the Second Child to acquiesce so easily, and the apology was certainly a surprise. “I would actually not mind you calling me that if you changed the tone with which it is said.”

Asuka looked blank for a moment, before she shrugged and said, “Well, I'll give it a go I suppose. Wondergirl. _Wondergirl_. Wondergirl... _Wunderpüppchen_... no, definitely not that. Damnit.” She huffed and stomped her foot. “Now it sounds either insulting or sarcastic no matter how I say it.”

“I appreciate your efforts, but I would like to change the subject, please,” Rei said, before looking around as best as she could from her position. “Where is Ikari?”

Asuka's arms flopped to her sides as her whole body seemed to slump. “You had to go and ruin the mood, didn't you? Oh, and the same goes for him; just call him Shinji,” she muttered, then pointed to a spot directly opposite Rei's bed. “He's over there, asleep since the MP Eva attacked.”

Rei's eyes widened at the news, and she once more attempted to raise herself up. Her arms wobbled dangerously, but she eventually managed to get her upper body vertical. Asuka threw her arms up in the air and gave up trying to convince the blue-haired girl to stay down.

On the other side of the room, Shinji lay in his own hospital bed. The only other furniture in the spartan room was a table and chair next to Shinji's bed. The small table held an empty cup and a red handheld game device. Even with the distance between them, Rei could notice some slight twitching of the boy's extremities. Rei made to get out of the bed, only to collapse as her legs instantly gave way the moment she put her full weight on them.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Asuka demanded as she came around to where Rei was on the floor. “What part of 'you need rest' don't you understand?”

“That is... ngh... unimportant right now,” Rei replied, trying to will herself to stand up. “I need to... see him.”

“You can see him just fine from your bed, you know.” Asuka offered a hand to Rei, but it was ignored as the girl began to slowly crawl towards the chair next to Shinji's bed.

“There is something I must attempt... before it's too late,” was Rei's cryptic reply.

“Oh fine then.”

Strong hands lifted Rei off the floor, to her surprise, and Asuka walked her over to the chair, plopping the girl down none too gently.

Asuka felt a sudden twitch of jealousy when Rei reached out for the boy's clenching and unclenching hand, but the rational part of her brain intervened before she could say or do anything, reminding her of the familial connection the two of them had, even if the blue-haired girl didn't seem to know it yet. Rei was staring intently at Shinji's sleeping face, and Asuka could clearly see concern in her eyes.

It was the same look she saw on Misato's face in the past whenever Shinji was hurt.

Asuka let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding, relaxing her body as she leaned on the other side of the bed. “What's so important to see in his face that couldn't wait a few hours?” she asked.

Rei broke the stare. “I will explain afterwards. In the meantime, please do not disturb me, as I must concentrate.” With that said, she closed her eyes and placed a hand on Shinji's forehead.

For a while it appeared as if nothing were happening. Asuka, giving up on understanding what Rei was trying to do, went over to the window while she waited and stared out at the Geofront. One of the ruined JSSDF vehicles had been left behind due to a family of animals moving into it, presumably after losing their old home during the attack.

A grunt from behind drew Asuka back to the bed. Rei's eyelids were twitching, and her mouth was set in a grimace while the hand that was holding Shinji's was trembling. Asuka wasn't sure if she should do anything, until Rei's eyes shot wide open and her whole body began to shake. She quickly slapped away both of Rei's hands from Shinji's body, and the bluenette let out a loud gasp before collapsing onto the bed, breathing heavily.

“Right, Wondergirl. Like it or not I'm putting you back in your bed,” Asuka declared, lifting Rei out of the chair to the girl's weak protests. She gently laid Rei down on the mattress, covering her with the sheet and even going so far as to tightly tuck her in so she couldn't get up again.

When the girl's breathing normalised once more, Asuka asked, “Well? What happened?”

Rei closed her eyes and was silent for a moment. “I saw... Shinji's nightmare. All I could hear was... screaming. So many different voices screaming in unison.”

“Rei, are you telling me that you somehow... looked into his mind?” Asuka crossed her arms and frowned. She didn't like the sound of what Rei was implying.

The First Child slowly nodded. “Yes. When I was one with Lilith, she knew that something was wrong with him. She kept attempting to look into his mind through the connection she once had with him as the trigger for Third Impact, but that link started to degrade once he was no longer in Instrumentality.” Rei sighed and opened her eyes. “All she could sense was surface feelings, fear and despair, but nothing substantial. Before Lilith released me from Instrumentality, she asked me to help her try to see into his mind one last time before the link disappeared entirely.”

She glanced at Asuka, and was taken aback by the enraged look in the redhead's eyes.

“You... you went into his head and dredged up his nightmares!” she yelled almost directly into Rei's face. “Don't you remember what the Fifteenth Angel did to _me_?!”

The blue-haired girl backed up as much as she could, but her face remained impassive. “That Angel forced its way into your mind and examined everything it saw, while making you watch as well. I was not nearly so... aggressive.”

“Well if you didn't just freaking mind rape him, then just what the hell _did_ you do?” The heat in Asuka's sapphire orbs was matched by the coolness of Rei's ruby eyes.

“I did nothing besides look. I was an observer, nothing more.” Rei stopped and thought for a moment. “I believe an appropriate analogy would be that I was watching a video.”

They stared at each other for a while longer. Finally, the heat faded slightly and Asuka stepped back with a sniff. “Alright, I'll guess I'll believe you. I've never known you to tell a lie before.”

The room was silent for a few minutes. Asuka sat down on the chair next to Shinji's bed. Whatever mental contact Rei had with him did not seem to have affected him at all ; h ospitalised or not, Asuka had been fully prepared to hurt Rei if her explanation had not been satisfactory. She was  _not_ going through all this effort to heal Shinji just to have a meddling girl come along and ruin all her hard work.

“I am sorry for the miscommunication, Asuka,” Rei softly apologised, tilting her head up to look across the room.

Asuka brushed off the apology with a wave of her hand. “Don't worry, it's fine,” she sighed.

“I do not claim to understand exactly what you experienced when the Fifteenth assaulted you. I regret that I was not faster in assisting you.”

The redhead scoffed. “I guess I should be thankful that you were able to do anything at all.” She brushed some of Shinji's hair out of his eyes while mumbling to herself, and Rei narrowed her eyes when she caught the word 'idiot'. After a minute of quiet, Asuka looked up and saw that the other girl was looking directly at her. “What?”

“Curious. You are displaying much more concern towards Shinji than I expected from you,” Rei noted. “Previously, you appeared to go out of your way to hurt him.”

“Yeah... well... things have changed,” Asuka replied, before quickly changing the subject. “I'm going to go stretch my legs, and maybe get something from the cafeteria before heading home. Do you want me to bring you anything, Wondergirl?”

Thankfully, Rei apparently decided not to press the issue as she said, “No, thank you. I believe I will take your earlier advice and-”

Asuka was in the middle of sticking her handheld game device in a pocket when she heard Rei suddenly stop talking. “What's wrong?”

“You did it.”

The redhead raised an eyebrow. “Did... what?”

  
  
“You called me Wondergirl without it sounding demeaning.”

Asuka blinked, and pursed her lips in thought. “Huh, I guess I did,” she finally remarked.

Rei gave a small smile, and Asuka couldn't help mimicking it.

“Right, I'm off,” Asuka said. “Now leave your brother alone for a while and get some damn sleep. I'll be back tomorrow morning.”

Asuka headed out of the room without looking back. The door slid shut behind her, and she missed Rei's wide-eyed expression as she stared at the closed door.

“...Brother?”

* * *

Neither Misato nor Ritsuko could remember who convinced who that they should put off dealing with the surprise return of the First Child until the next morning. Asuka told Misato about her conversation with Rei on their way home, and the woman almost turned her car around in the apartment block's car park to rush back to Shinji's side before Asuka convinced her that they were both too tired to be of much help, even if there was something they could do.

While she was lucky enough to not be assaulted by her own nightmares, Asuka felt the old and familiar sensation of loneliness once more as she slept that night, her hand reaching out to grasp at something that wasn't there.

It was a _hated_ feeling.

She had to almost physically restrain herself from slapping her own face in frustration when she was first through the door into the hospital room and saw Rei sitting calmly in the seat by Shinji's bed, holding his hand and looking as if she had been expecting them. Misato had to squeeze past her to enter. Ritsuko was elsewhere in the medical wing, but had said she would be with them shortly.

“Didn't I tell you to rest and leave him alone?” she growled as she stomped towards the bed. To her satisfaction the First Child had the decency to look slightly embarrassed about being caught.

“You did. I was asleep for almost eleven hours,” Rei replied. She glanced towards the boy on the bed. “Then I was awoken by Shinji tossing and turning half an hour ago. I tried to see if he was having the same nightmare again, but...”

“That 'link' thing is gone now, isn't it?” Asuka finished for her.

Rei nodded sadly. “I cannot discover what the nightmare was, but he seemed to be reaching out to someone or something. That is why I am now holding his hand.” Asuka's gaze travelled down the pale arm to where it met with Shinji's. “He settled down quickly after that.”

The few times that Asuka had seen the First and Third Children together outside of NERV, she usually had to fight down a sudden urge to walk over and deliberately interrupt whatever they had been doing. It had _certainly_ not been because she wanted Shinji for herself. The spineless idiot wouldn't have known what to do with her anyway. She was just going to go over there because she was bored, or because Shinji shouldn't be wasting his time on a doll, or whatever else popped into Asuka's head at the time.

Of course, by the time she had come up with a decent excuse, the two Children would have already parted ways.

_'They're siblings. Brother and sister. Or close enough to it. She probably doesn't know what's been happening in the last few months. **Don't** rip her head off just because she helped him when you weren't here. Would you rather have come in to see Wondergirl ignoring his suffering?'_ Asuka let out a breath, and with it the anger that had been unconsciously rising within her.

Rather than a knee-jerk reaction of slapping away Rei's hand again, Asuka stood on the other side of the bed and held onto Shinji's free left hand. Her thumb began to absently move in circles over the back of his hand, the memory of her lonely night quickly forgotten with the reassuring feeling of his hand in hers. The two girls stared at each other, Asuka seeming to be daring Rei to say something.

“Rei! It's so good to see you again!” Sensing that their conversation was over for the time being, Misato chose that moment to move around to Rei's side of the bed and suddenly lift the girl completely out of the chair with a fierce hug. Rei was forced to let go of Shinji's hand as Misato spun them both around, and when they finally came to a halt Asuka was astonished to see colour in Rei's blushing face.

“I am... glad to see you as well, Major Katsuragi.”

“It's Commander now, actually,” Misato corrected. “And just call me Misato, for goodness sake.”

“I see. Congratulations on your promotion, M-Misato. Does this mean that Co-... that Gendo Ikari has not returned?”

“Nope, the bastard is still out in the sea somewhere.”

Asuka frowned. Was that a hint of relief on Rei's face when told of the elder Ikari's absence? The girl who had been his willing puppet for her entire life?

“So what's all this about a mental link, Rei?” Misato asked as she set Rei down back on her feet. The woman sat sideways on the recently vacated chair, with one arm hanging over the back and the other leaning on Shinji's bed.

Rei remained where she had been set down. She began to fidget slightly as she spoke. “As Shinji was the trigger for Third Impact, Lilith had a special connection with him. She did not discover the extent of his trauma until it was too late. Even though Shinji accepted her offer to restore humanity... maybe the damage was already done.” She let out a sad sigh. “I believe Lilith thinks... that it was _her_ fault, for placing control in his hands. Perhaps she was hoping to be able to use the link to help him recover. ”

“Shinji was in no fit state to decide anything, Rei,” Misato said. “When I found him during the JSSDF attack, he was hiding under a stairwell literally waiting to get shot in the head.”

“I remember that. His memories of that day were seen by Lilith, and as a result I saw them too.”

“Rei,” Ritsuko interrupted as she poked her head through the door. “I want to do a full physical on you, just to make sure there's nothing wrong.”

“Of course, Doctor Akagi.” Rei stood up and began to walk out of the room.

“Wait!” Asuka exclaimed just as the doctor and First Child reached the door. “You have Shinji's memories of that day?”

Rei turned to look over her shoulder. “Yes. But I do not know why.”

“No point asking why or even _how_ , but...” Asuka paused, looking at Misato for a few seconds. “Do you know exactly what happened to him on the day of the attack?” she asked, glancing sidelong at Rei. Misato leaned forward, listening intently.

Rei's gaze unfocused slightly as she searched her memory. “There are four major events that contributed to Shinji's decision to initiate Third Impact. Two of them are the deaths of you and Misato.”

Misato nodded grimly, and Asuka shivered.  _'That scream I heard after being ripped apart...'_

“The other two are... private matters that I do not wish to reveal.”

“W-why not?!” Asuka let go of Shinji's hand and stalked over to spin Rei around, grabbing hold of her shirt. “Don't you think that's something we need to know? He's been catatonic ever since we found him, and all we know is that it was because of what occurred around Third Impact! We can't even _try_ to help him until we know what happened, so if you know, then tell us!”

“I do know.” Rei's eyes turned to steel. “But it is not my place to tell you. It is something that concerns only two people. You and Shinji.”

“But... I was in a coma right before fighting the JSSDF and the MP Evas.” Asuka's grip slackened as she struggled to understand. “There was no point where I was in contact with him.”

Rei gently untangled Asuka's hands from her clothing. “I will only say this: Shinji _must_ be the one to tell you.” With that said she turned and left the room with Ritsuko.

Asuka opened and closed her mouth a few times before turning to look at Misato, who simply shrugged.

“ _Gottverdammt,”_ Asuka swore, lightly butting the closed door with the back of her head. “Just when I thought we were getting somewhere...”

“We could try checking the security footage archive, to see if we can find out anything,” Misato suggested.

“What could it possibly be, though? What is it that Rei refuses to tell me?”

“I don't know. And despite being the Commander, I'm not going to order her to speak. I saw that look in her eyes.” Misato put a hand to her chin, gazing at the door Rei had exited through. “I'm not even sure she would acknowledge that order.”

She shook her head, before turning to look seriously at Asuka. “Anyway, now that she's out of the room... I need to know something, Asuka.”

Asuka was deep in thought, but perked up when she heard her name. “Hmm? What's that?”

“I don't doubt that there will be more attacks, and right now you two are the only pilots available, with Shinji the way he is. I know you and Rei have had problems in the past, and I'm hoping that's where they'll stay. In the _past_.” Misato folded her arms. “Can I count on you to put aside whatever differences you two have?”

“The only real problem I had with Rei was the fact that she was such an obedient _doll,_ the old Commander's _pet_ ,” Asuka sneered. “It's pretty obvious now that she's apparently gotten all that out of her system. I can't promise that we won't argue, especially after what she just pulled, but at least you shouldn't have to worry about us coming to blows.”

“Well, that's better than I expected,” Misato replied, before her mouth twisted into an evil grin. “And if you two can't get along, I could always force you two into sync training.”

A massive shudder wracked Asuka's body. “Don't even joke about that.”

“It's not a joke. Work together, or be _forced_ to work together.”

The pair made idle chat for the next hour, until Ritsuko returned, PDA in hand and a dumbfounded look on her face.

“The results are here.” She tossed the device into Misato's lap, who picked it up and stared at it, examining what little of the report she could understand, while Asuka read over her shoulder.

After a few minutes Asuka pulled back, shock evident on her face, but Misato raised an eyebrow and said, “Okay, I'm not understanding the reason for your surprise. This thing says she's perfectly healthy.”

Ritsuko took off her glasses and rubbed her forehead. “There's a specific word you obviously missed. Read that last bit again.”

As Misato bent her head down to read, Ritsuko raised a finger to her lips, signalling Asuka to be quiet. The redhead nodded and moved to sit on the empty bed.

“'To summarise,'” Misato read. “'Rei is a perfectly healthy...'” She squinted, as if not believing what was in front of her eyes.

“A perfectly healthy _human_ girl?!”

“Correct.” The soft voice drew everyone's attention to Rei, standing in the doorway. “When Lilith sent me back to this world, she must have kept the portion of my DNA that belonged to her, as well as given me my own soul. But that is not important right now.” She moved to stand at attention before Misato, who was still reeling from the revelation. “Commander Katsuragi. I must speak to you about the Revenants.”

* * *

Misato's office as the Commander of NERV was much smaller than the one Gendo Ikari had, but it was infinitely friendlier. It was one of the few things missed by almost nobody with the destruction of the pyramid. Misato hated how incredibly large the egotistical man had made his office. Every time she had to report to the now former Commander, it felt like it took half an hour from entering the office to reaching the invisible point everybody stopped at to speak with him, what felt like fifty meters away from the desk.

Looking back, Misato wondered just how the hell people managed to hear each other properly, in that office with that arrangement.

Her office, on the other hand, was much more informal. It had originally belonged to Kozo Fuyutsuki, and the kindly old professor had made his workspace feel as inviting as possible, perhaps as a counter to Gendo and his dark lair. The room was illuminated by a soft and warm light, and bookshelves dotted the walls. Where there were no shelves, there were landscape paintings, including one of Lake Ashi.

It felt like a school teacher's office, which made sense considering Fuyutsuki's previous occupation.

Misato now sat behind the old mahogany desk, chin resting on her hands, thinking over what Rei had just revealed. In front of her, Ritsuko was relaxing on a comfortable couch, tapping away at her PDA. After a few minutes, she looked up.

“The MAGI now know everything about the Revenants that we do,” she reported. “We should have a plan within the next few hours.”

“I find myself wondering why you're even bothering to ask them,” replied Misato. “We _know_ we're going to have to rebuild.”

Ritsuko shrugged. “They can plan much faster than any human, and tell us the optimal steps to take when rebuilding our defenses based on what Rei told us.”

Misato growled under her breath. “We're forced to send kids to fight our battles again, and this time it's all just some big...” She waved her hands vaguely in the air while she attempted to find the right word. “Test? At least they won't all attack at once.”

“We'll have to step up the pilot training. Fortunately, we basically already know what to expect from an MP Eva. Unlike the Angels, where we couldn't even guess at what they would _look like_.” Misato nodded and hummed in agreement.

“Where are the girls, anyway?” Ritsuko asked as she switched off her PDA's screen.

“Asuka went back to Shinji's room, and I believe Rei followed her.”

“Hmm. Asuka seems rather obsessed with the Third Child, doesn't she? Lately she's been spending every waking moment with him.”

“I believe it's her way of trying to make amends, due to the way she treated him last year.” Misato leaned on the desk and slowly rubbed her face. “Sometimes I truly wonder if I did the right thing by having them live together.”

“It was your idea though, if I recall.”

“I _know_ ,” Misato muttered through her hands. “I was _hoping_ they would get along, but Asuka treated him like dirt and Shinji would just let her do it. Oh, I _tried_ to mediate between them but I was either too busy or too tired a lot of the time.” Or too drunk, she definitely didn't add.

Every now and then Misato would see Shinji after Asuka had put him down, and she could see just how badly he was affected. He would try to hide it and pretend nothing was wrong, but Misato quickly picked up on his body language. Even his cooking would suffer occasionally, if Asuka had been particularly ruthless that day. Misato was sure that Asuka never noticed, though.

Ritsuko smirked when Misato finished speaking. “I'm surprised _you_ could tell the difference, what with the way you kept destroying your taste buds with all those horrible meals.”

“Hey, I didn't choose you for my Sub-Commander so you could insult me!” Misato pointed and mock-glared at her.

Misato had made her decision almost immediately after the battle, claiming that Ritsuko was the only one who knew enough about NERV to hold the position. Later, Misato admitted in private that while she had almost given up at the start of the fight, Ritsuko's optimism had been what convinced Misato that her old friend was probably better suited than her at being a leader of an entity as large as NERV.

If it were possible, she would have tried to get her scientist friend made Commander in her place. Sub-Commander would have to do.

“You made me Sub-Commander because with Fuyutsuki gone, I'm the next best advisor.”

With a sigh, Misato leaned back in her chair. “I could really use that old man right about now. He always had an answer for everything, and he always made you feel better for asking.”

“He could still return, you know. It's only been six months since Third Impact. People are still returning all over the world every day.”

“Perhaps, but I wouldn't insult him by trying to drag him back to NERV. If he did return, I'd give him the most generous retirement package possible.”

The grandfather clock in the corner of the room struck the hour, and both women looked up at it.

“Well, we're going to be waiting a while. Want to get some lunch?” Misato suggested.

* * *

“Um, okay I guess,” Asuka answered, slightly confused. Rei had caught up to her shortly after they left the Commander's office while the redhead was waiting for an elevator.

“Is something wrong, Asuka?” Rei asked as she tilted her head.

“It's nothing, I just never expected to hear _you_ suggest something, especially lunch.”

The elevator arrived, and the two of them entered. They descended in silence for a while, before Rei glanced at Asuka and said, “I must admit, I do have a reason for the suggestion.” At her fellow pilot's inquisitive look, she continued. “I would like to speak to you about my... my brother.”

Asuka pushed away from the wall she had been resting against and crossed the small distance between them, leaning forward to stare at Rei. “Say that last bit again.”

Surprisingly, Rei actually leaned back slightly as Asuka invaded her personal space again. “I wish to speak to you about m-my brother...”

“Why are you tripping over calling him that?” Asuka asked, standing upright and folding her arms.

“I... ” Rei turned away, unable to maintain eye contact, and instead chose to stare down at her feet. She took a deep breath. “I... it feels strange to call Shinji my brother. I never even imagined that I would _have_ someone I could refer to as family.”

“What about Shinji's old man? He practically raised you, didn't he?”

“He did, but he mostly played the part of a guardian to me, much like Misato does to you and Shinji. I never had a reason to question the relationship... until I met Shinji.”

As the elevator reached their floor, they stepped out and headed towards the cafeteria. Rei raised her head just enough to see where she was going.

“He arrived in Tokyo-3 on the day the Third Angel attacked,” Rei recalled. “The very first time I saw him, he was holding me in his arms after I was knocked off my gurney.” In front of her, Asuka raised an eyebrow but remained silent. “It has taken me a long time to realise, but there was something in his eyes back then, as well as when he opened my entry plug after the Fifth Angel, that I never saw in his father's.”

Asuka stopped and turned around when she heard the First Child halt. What she saw on the girl's face was enough to disconcert her. Rei was... upset? _Angry?_ The foot traffic flowed around them as they both stood in the middle of the corridor, not a glance being spared their way.

“Shinji _cared_ about me! He did not even know who I was and yet he was concerned!” Rei's voice had raised slightly, which was almost the equivalent of a shout for anybody else. “What reason would he have for that?”

“People don't _need_ a reason to care for each other, Wondergirl. It's normal to want to look after someone else.”

“ _Then why didn't his father care?!”_

Taking a step back, Asuka's mouth dropped open in shock as Rei finally did shout. A couple of passing workers paused and stared at the pair, but a scowl from the Second Child got them moving again.

Rei also seemed to have been surprised by her sudden yell as her hands leapt up to cover her mouth. She walked past Asuka with a mumbled apology, continuing to the cafeteria. After a few seconds, Asuka remembered to follow her.

She caught up quickly but remained silent as the two girls got their meals, Asuka choosing soup and a soft drink, while Rei opted for a simple salad and a glass of water. Only when the girl started eating did Asuka notice Rei beginning to calm down.

“Please forgive my outburst,” Rei quietly said, placing her cutlery down next to her half-finished meal. “I do not understand why I did that.” She stared down into the plate in front of her.

Asuka quietly cleared her throat. “You, uh... wanna talk about it?” she asked.

“No,” Rei replied, shaking her head. She looked up at Asuka's face. “But perhaps I should.”

Asuka sat back and patiently waited as Rei spent a long minute slowly draining her glass of water, gathering her thoughts.

“It is not something I intentionally set out to do on my own,” Rei began, holding the empty glass in front of her face. “But over time I began to observe differences in people's eyes during conversation. For example, Doctor Akagi would pretend to be friendly towards me during our appointments, but that friendliness never reached her eyes. I have noticed that people's eyes would often reveal the truth. Did you never wonder why I maintained such intense eye contact with whoever was speaking?”

  
  
“I _did_ notice you staring at everyone, Wondergirl, but I thought you were just being creepy.”

“I was teaching myself to watch for those cues. It was not my intention to appear 'creepy', as you say.”

“Well, you're doing much better now. Instead of acting like a robot, you're talking to us as if you're... well... human,” Asuka noted. “But what does this have to do with anything?”

Rei smiled slightly for a moment at Asuka's almost-a-compliment. “Gendo Ikari's eyes. Unlike his son's, I never saw a hint of caring in his face. Every minute Shinji's father spent with me, it was always with the same look in his eyes. I may not have a perfect memory, but some major events in my life are as clear as if they had happened only moments before. I remember Gendo Ikari's eyes in each event, and they were the same. Tell me, Asuka. Have you ever pretended to smile at someone?”

The redhead nodded, recalling the many verbal cat-fights she had been involved with during both school and college.

“Gendo Ikari did something very similar. During one of my tests with Unit-00, it went berserk. My entry plug was ejected in a confined space, and I was gravely injured as a result. He shouted my name over the comm as if he was worried, and burned his own hands when he raced to my plug and opened the hatch.” Rei placed the glass on the table and folded her hands in her lap. “He sounded relieved when he spoke, but his eyes... remained cold.”

Asuka frowned as a thought occurred. “How could you even tell what was in his eyes when he was wearing those stupid orange sunglasses?”

“I spent a great deal of time with him. The glasses were meant to shield his eyes from people further away than where I stood in relation to him, to prevent them reading his face and gaining an advantage. When he opened my entry plug, his glasses had somehow fallen off.”

The two lapsed into silence for several minutes as they finished their meals. When she had finished her soup, Asuka wiped her mouth clean with her sleeve and said, “So that's why you lost your temper. Because you realised the man who raised you, the man you were devoted to, was a heartless bastard.”

Rei nodded glumly, but before she could speak further a tray slapped down onto the table next to them. Two more trays joined them as Misato, Ritsuko and Maya sat down. All three of the newcomers' trays held sandwiches and coffee.

“What a story. Gendo Ikari is an asshole.” Misato sarcastically announced as she plopped down into a seat behind Rei. “Didn't expect to see you two here. How did you get to talking about my, ah... 'predecessor'?”

Asuka quickly filled them in. Misato and Maya were astonished at Rei's sudden show of emotion. Ritsuko's worried look went unnoticed until Rei happened to glance in her direction as she twisted around in her chair to regard the women, at which point the scientist blanked her face.

The conversation between the adults and teenagers came to an end as Maya asked Ritsuko a question, and the NERV officers began talking amongst themselves. Asuka and Rei turned their attention back to each other and in a low voice, Asuka said, “Well, as some people insist on saying, we can't change the past. Put that bastard out of your mind, Wondergirl. You'll be a lot happier just forgetting about him. Instead of looking back at what went wrong, look ahead.”

Rei looked uncertain. “I... do not know if I will be able to.”

“It's not going to happen straight away, so don't try and force it.” Asuka stopped, thinking to herself for a moment, and snapped her fingers. “Oh, I just remembered. We still haven't spoken about Shinji like you wanted to. Kinda got distracted by his stupid dad.”

A slight widening of Rei's eyes revealed that she had forgotten as well, and her gaze darted to the side. Looking over her shoulder, Asuka saw that the three adults were still deep in conversation. “Don't worry about them. Misato would be the only one to hear us, and she's not going to blab,” she reassured the girl, lowering her voice a little more.

Rei looked sceptical for a moment, turning to look at the back of Misato's head, but eventually turned back to Asuka and, in an equally low voice, said, “Very well, although I believe you should be more concerned as the question I have is about you.”

Asuka froze, directing her own stare past Rei's shoulder and at the purple hair of her guardian. Her face reddened slightly. “Me?!” she hissed. “What about me? I thought we were going to talk about Shinji.”

Leaning on the table with her hands clasped in front of her around her plate, Rei nodded. “It is about you and him.” Ignoring the growing colour in Asuka's face, she asked, “Why are you spending so much time with my brother?”

Asuka could have sworn that Misato somehow heard the scream inside her head. The woman's head slowly turned around, and the stunned redhead was sure Misato was looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Was that a grin on her face?

_'Ohshitohshitohshit.'_

“Asuka?”

“Huh?” She blinked. Misato was deep in conversation with Ritsuko, and Rei was staring at her.

“You are apparently spending a lot of time with Shinji. Why?” Rei repeated her question.

“I... I, uh...” Asuka tried to speak, before violently shaking her head, sending her brilliant red tresses tumbling about. “What business is it of yours what I do with my time?!” she demanded, struggling to both stay quiet and control her increasingly reddening face.

“As you have said, Shinji is my brother. As a member of his family, it is my duty to look out for him,” Rei calmly replied. “You have no such familial bond, yet you appear to have taken it upon yourself to watch over Shinji. The nursing staff here are more than capable of looking after him without you. Now that I have returned, I could take your place. There is no need for you to be here, Asuka.”

“Yeah... well... you're not getting rid of me that easily. Shinji's a- a fellow Eva pilot!” Asuka stammered. “And since I'm the top pilot, his welfare is my concern!”

Rei gave Asuka a cool look. “I would be more inclined to believe that had you _not_ spent most of last year harassing and belittling him.”

If it hadn't been for the fact that the blue-haired girl was so incredibly _right_ , Asuka would have likely yelled loudly enough to draw the attention of the other table. She instead cast a pointed glance over Rei's shoulder as she picked up her tray and moved away from the table.

Asuka dumped her tray where the cafeteria staff could collect it. Instead of returning to the table, she walked to the window and gazed sullenly outside, crossing her arms in front of her. In the partial reflection on the window, she idly noticed that her face was a similar colour to her Evangelion's paint job, but it was now slowly starting to fade away.

A quiet “thank you” behind her, followed by almost noiseless footsteps, told  Asuka that Rei was now standing just behind her. Her eyes moved slightly to the right, and locked with Rei's mirrored tranquil red  eyes .

“Fine, you want to know the truth, Wondergirl?” she muttered. “It's...”

_'No, don't say it. You're not even sure it_ is  _the truth. Not yet anyway.'_

“I... I don't trust them to do it, alright?” Asuka finally said. “Shinji's practically a coma patient. They're not going to have someone sitting in his room all day. After all, it's not like he'll get up and start sleepwalking or something.”

_'What I wouldn't give just to see him do even that...'_

Rei seemed to consider this for a moment. After what felt like far too much time to Asuka, the First Child said, “Misato could order them to have someone with him constantly. She is the Commander, they must obey her.”

Asuka snorted as she leaned on the window sill. “They'll obey that order just long enough to ensure she's stopped paying attention to them. Yes, Misato's the Commander, and that means she's going to be very busy. As soon as she turns her back, they will too. Shinji would just be another patient to them.”

“You are grasping at straws Asuka, and creating scenarios in your head that may never come to pass.”

Asuka's head tilted, shifting her gaze from the reflection to the girl standing behind her as she sighed. “Fine. Say you're right, and someone's with him. What are they going to do when he has a nightmare?”

As an answer, Rei lifted one hand in front of her face and glanced at it for a moment, before looking at Asuka once more. Asuka shook her head in response.

“Nice idea, but that doesn't work with just anybody.” Her gaze drifted back to the window. “So far, you and I are the only two able to calm Shinji down. Misato attempted to help him a while ago while I wasn't home. It didn't work. Toji's sister tried once as well.”

Asuka had arrived home after a short trip to the grocery store to the sight of a crying Sakura being gently led away by her older brother. It had taken a couple of days and everyone pitching in to convince the depressed young girl that it wasn't her fault.

“I can sort of understand why it works for you, since you're his sister. I don't know if Shinji actually knows that, though,” Asuka shrugged, before turning around fully to face Rei with a hand on her chest. “But why the hell does he respond to me too? Look at what happened between us last year. Hell, yesterday he woke up while we were testing Unit-01 and tried to kill me!”

Rei nodded. “Yes, Doctor Akagi has informed me of what happened  just before I returned .”

“He did a pretty damn poor job of it too,” Asuka continued as if she had not heard Rei. “Honestly, it was like he had completely forgotten how to throw a punch.”

As Asuka proceeded to talk about the strange lapse in Shinji's combat skills, she failed to notice Rei closing the distance between them and begin carefully sniffing. Only when the redhead began to wave her hands about while recounting the fight did she notice how close Rei was, when an arm bumped into the curious girl's head.

“Wh- Rei, what the hell are you doing?” Asuka asked, backing up against the window sill in surprise at Rei's close proximity.

“There is an unusual smell about you,” the First Child curiously answered.

“Smell? That's probably my shampoo!” Rei retreated slightly, allowing Asuka to move away from the window. “I've been using it for months, so- will you stop that?!” she demanded as Rei leaned in once more. The smell of strawberries was strong on Asuka, and Rei inhaled it deeply.

“Its scent is familiar.” Rei put a hand to her chin in thought for a moment. “You used this shampoo after you transferred to Tokyo-3, but stopped not long after the Eighth Angel.” Rei had an inquisitive look on her face, apparently trying to work something out.

“Well yeah, I brought that brand over from Germany, but I ran out. Between school and NERV business, I didn't particularly feel like hunting through every store in Tokyo-3 to try and find it again.” Asuka grinned. “I did find a whole box of it in a supermarket during a scavenging run just before people started coming back. That's why I'm using it again.”

“That is rather fortunate.”

“Yeah.” Asuka lost the grin and folded her arms, narrowing her eyes at the nosy girl. “But... why are _you_ of all people talking about shampoo?”

Rei raised a finger and pointed at the middle of the redhead's face. “Olfactory memory,” she said simply.

It took Asuka just a little longer than she would ever admit to understand what Rei meant. Her college degree had not been in medicine, after all. When it finally clicked, she directed a shocked look at Rei's calm face. “He's... remembering the smell of my shampoo? _That's_ what calms him down?!” she asked incredulously.

With a small nod, Rei replied, “Correct. The scent is reminding him of a better time, and helping to banish his nightmares.”

“Well that's just _great_. I could be replaced by a freaking plastic bottle,” Asuka grumbled sardonically.

“It is not as simple as that, Asuka. A plastic bottle would not be able to hold his hand, and provide physical support.”

Asuka exhaled, running a hand slowly through her hair as she stared at nothing. Rei's words had reminded her of her own feelings about the early days. Annoyance about having to live with what she believed was just another perverted boy. Anger about being forced to co-operate with said boy. Grudging respect as they eventually perfected their sync training routine and killed the Seventh Angel.

And that respect turned into hidden gratitude and admiration when Shinji dove into a volcano to save her.

Which was the other reason Asuka was staying by his side.

“I still owe him...” she mumbled quietly. She had returned to leaning on the window sill, her head downcast.

“Pardon?”

“What?” Asuka darted around.

“Why do you owe him?”

Letting out a sigh, Asuka decided to tell her. She knew that if she didn't, Rei would likely suspect she wasn't telling the truth. And it was easier to reveal her debt than it was to... admit something else. “At first I just didn't want Shinji to hold it over me, that he had saved my life in that volcano. But he didn't even think about trying to make me pay him back. Okay, I know he was ordered in after me but-”

"That was not the order he was given.”

Asuka blinked as her train of thought was interrupted. “Wait... what?”

“Shinji had been ordered by Misato to hold his position. She was almost screaming over the comm for him to stay where he was.”

Asuka stood stunned for a minute as the revelation ran through her mind. If Rei had wanted to, she could have knocked her over with a light push. “ _Gott..._ He... jumped into a volcano to save me, and with nothing to protect him from the heat... _against_ orders? Why would he do something like that?”

“Why would he save you? Or why would he disobey?”

“The second one. He practically _worshipped_ Misato back then.” Asuka waved a hand in the direction of Misato. “And then he goes and disobeys her.”

“I am afraid I do not have the answer to that question,” Rei replied apologetically.

“No, of course you wouldn't...” Asuka sighed in defeat.

They returned to their table in silence.

Maya had left, returning to her station, and now only Misato and Ritsuko were left in the cafeteria along with the pilots. The staff had cleaned up and left to prepare for the dinner rush. The two girls sat opposite one another. Asuka had a hand on her cheek, leaning on the table, while her other hand tapped away idly on the tabletop.

Asuka neglected to mention a certain thing related to her time in the volcano. For a while afterwards, she had experienced a phantom sensation of heat at seemingly random times that felt like a mild sunburn. Her Evangelion had been in a protective dive suit and had not felt much of the volcano until the Angel had severed her coolant lines, but Shinji had been in the lava without any protection. What would he have felt?

“I gotta go,” Asuka suddenly said, getting up and leaving the cafeteria almost at a run.

Rei watched her leave, deciding not to follow. Asuka had been truthful enough with her that she was convinced that the once-antagonistic girl no longer held any hostility towards her brother, and had earned some time alone with him.

“That went better than I hoped,” came a voice from behind her.

“Yes, I was expecting to already have to stop an argument.”

Rei turned around. The two remaining women had also witnessed Asuka's departure, and Misato was now looking intently at her. “Was there anything we should be concerned about, Rei?” inquired Misato.

“No,” Rei replied with a shake of her head. “But I believe we have discovered why Shinji reacts to her presence so positively.” She outlined what the two pilots had discussed, but held back on the more personal details. Misato would likely question the Second Child later.

“Well, let's leave her alone for a bit. There's something I want to discuss with you anyway.” Misato and Ritsuko got up from their table and moved to sit to the sides of Rei. The girl's expression turned apprehensive, looking from side to side, and Misato chuckled. “We should work out where you'll be living now, seeing as your old home was destroyed.”

While she had not previously cared about living alone, a sinking feeling settled in Rei's stomach as she imagined herself returning to a solitary existence. Even with the short time she had spent around people after returning from Instrumentality, Rei felt something she had only heard about, but never experienced personally.

Whether it was because of Asuka's experiences, or something else, she was now starting to treat Rei with something approaching respect. She was even making an effort to change her speech pattern to accommodate her fellow pilot's wishes. Shinji's efforts the previous year had planted a seed in Rei, and Asuka had just watered it.

She was now feeling the first stirrings of companionship.

And she found that she did _not_ want to live alone anymore.

The light touch of a hand on her shoulder caused Rei to jolt slightly, and she looked up into the concerned face of Misato.

“Are you okay, Rei?”

“Please...” The blue-haired girl's body began to shake slightly.

Misato and Ritsuko stared in surprise as the once-emotionless girl wrapped her arms around her trembling frame. Misato gently squeezed Rei's shoulder. “Rei.” Her other hand reached out and cupped the girl's chin, lifting her head up. Tears were just starting to brim in Rei's tightly closed eyes. “What's the matter, Rei?”

“Please don't make me live on my own again!” Rei cried out.

The eyes of both women locked. Shock was clearly written on Misato's face, but guilt was all over Ritsuko's. Misato tore her eyes away and gazed back down at the girl in front of her.

“I wasn't going to suggest that at all, Rei,” she gently reassured. “In fact...”

Rei's eyes opened wide and she gasped at the next words to come out of Misato's mouth.

“I was going to offer to let you stay with me.”

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Rei managed to croak, “Do... you really mean that?”

“Of course!” Misato nodded emphatically. “You're Shinji's sister. I see him as the son I never had. Which kind of makes you my daughter. Part of my family.” Ritsuko disappeared for a moment, and came back with a napkin which she pressed into Misato's outstretched hand. “And a family looks out for each other. Just say the word and I'll make the arrangements,” she finished, gently wiping Rei's eyes dry.

Without hesitation, Rei replied, “Yes, please!”

Misato held her arms out wide and grinned. “Then welcome to the family, Rei!”

While she remained seated, the look of joy in the girl's eyes was impossible to miss, as was the smile that blossomed on her face. Misato's grin faded after a few seconds, and her arms drooped. Rei silently wondered what the woman had been expecting to occur.

“Of course you do realise that you'll be living in the same house as Asuka, right?” Misato warned, the smile returning to her face as she imagined the two living together.

“I do not mind, Misato,” Rei replied. “And... I am sorry.”

Misato raised a questioning eyebrow. “What are you apologising for? You did nothing wrong.”

“I- I lost control of my emotions again.”

“Oh, that? Pfft." Misato dismissively waved a hand. "All you did was cry a little. I'm not exactly sure what happened to you last year to warrant such a reaction, but it's fine.”

Ritsuko cut in. “That's... actually something I would like to speak to Rei about, privately. If you don't mind, of course, Misato.”

Misato stood up. “I'll get out of your hair then, and go chat with Asuka. She'll need to know about her new housemate anyway.” With that, she left the cafeteria.

_'Rei's starting to act like a normal girl now,'_ she mused, grinning as she recalled the smile on Rei's face. The elevator quickly arrived, and dropped her off at the hospital's floor.  _'I just hope Asuka won't put up too much of a fuss about having her living with us.'_

She entered Shinji's room, but stopped just inside the doorway. Shinji was sitting up in bed, and Asuka was in the chair next to him, his right hand clasped in both of hers. Misato was surprised to see a broad smile on the girl's face as Asuka looked up at her.

“Misato, come and have a look at this,” she said, beckoning the woman with a tilt of her head. Misato moved to stand behind the girl, and gazed at her surrogate son.

“What am I looking for?” she asked.

“You mean you can't see it? Look closer.”

There appeared to be nothing wrong with Shinji. He was staring blankly ahead, his tortured mind still refusing to acknowledge reality.

“He looks the same to me, Asuka. Maybe you're just imagining things,” Misato replied, resting a hand on the redhead's shoulder.

“Are you blind? His eyes are different now!”

Sighing, but choosing to humour her, Misato moved to the other side of the bed and leaned in close to Shinji's face. Her jaw dropped when she saw what Asuka was talking about.

Shinji no longer had the utterly vacant, almost dead look in his eyes that had persisted ever since awakening in their apartment several months ago. Now there was life, a tiny light in the centre of each circle of  blue . It was faint, unnoticeable by any save the two of them, but to the Commander and Second Child it was a massive and wonderful sign.

Misato dragged a chair in from another room, and together they held the boy's hands, thankful for this spark of hope.


	16. Chapter 16

“Rei, I'm going to ask you a question,” Ritsuko said. “I want you to know that no matter your answer, I will respect it. But if the Commander orders me to, I _must_ tell her about this. All of it.”

The First Child nodded. “I understand.”

The two had quietly spoken to each other after Misato left. Ritsuko expressed her worries about Rei's sudden emotional swings, but she was not as surprised as Rei herself had been. It had reached the point where Rei was starting to become afraid of her own emotions. Already she had shouted at someone and almost broke down crying.

However, this time when they spoke with each other, Rei had finally noticed the concern that had been missing from the scientist during her examinations the previous year. That was enough for Rei to answer frankly.

Ritsuko took a deep breath. “Do you want to go back on the drug regimen? You don't need the anti-rejection medication anymore, but the rest will keep you from these sudden outbursts you've been having.”

As the words left her mouth, Ritsuko silently prayed that Rei would pick the right choice. That Rei would choose not to take the drugs again, and be able to live the life that was stolen from her before she was even born. She would simply have to learn how to control her emotions.

When Rei's eyes widened in shock after a moment of thought, Ritsuko realised something. Rei had utterly no idea what the rest of the drugs she had been given were made to do. A horrible feeling washed over her as she stared at the girl.

“What are you saying, Doctor Akagi?” There was no mistaking the accusatory tone in Rei's voice. “Was countering the rejection of my angelic half not the whole purpose of the regimen?”

Ritsuko found she could no longer hold her gaze with those angry red eyes. Rei was giving her the same look she had given the girl during their examinations. An expression of barely concealed disdain. She chose instead to look down at her hands on the table in front of her.

“It was Ikari's orders. He wanted you bent to his will by any means necessary, with no possibility of outside interference.” Ritsuko let out a harsh laugh. “Look at how well _that_ turned out...”

Rei shook her head. “I know why. I want to know  _what_ you did.” Her voice was starting to gain an edge.

“Rei... I- I'm sorry...”

“What did you do to me?”

“I-”

The chair almost fell over as Rei quickly got to her feet. “ _What did you do?!”_ she yelled.

The woman slapped the table as she too stood up. “Ayanami, sit down!” Ritsuko ordered.

Despite her anger, Rei found herself automatically moving to comply. Perhaps it was her conditioning to obey orders, or maybe it was the hint of moisture in the scientist's eyes.

“I drugged you, I admit that,” Ritsuko said after a moment of staring at Rei, her hands planted on either edge of the table. “I gave you such a horrendous combination of emotional and hormonal suppressants together with the anti-rejection drugs that I'm _still_ surprised you didn't die from them. Those drugs were never meant to be anywhere near each other. If any _real_ medical professional found out what I had done to you, I would likely be in prison for the rest of my life! Your mind had been deadened and your body clock halted almost since you were 'born'.” Ritsuko snorted the last word.

She slumped back into her chair with her face cupped in her hands, her energy gone. “I _know_ what I did was terrible, but it had to be done. For him. For Ikari. Every time you came to me, I was reminded of what I was doing just because _he_ ordered me to. I told myself for years that you understood. That you didn't care what happened to your mind and body because of your purpose. And I followed Ikari's orders in the hope that he would look at me the way he looked at... you.”

“How much of my regimen was suppressants?”

Ritsuko thought for a moment. “The medication to counter your angelic DNA only made up about a quarter of the drugs.”

_'Three quarters,'_ Rei thought, recalling the table where she once stored the medication. _'It is little wonder then why Asuka called me a doll.'_ She sat still, absorbing the information, then frowned as something Ritsuko said sunk in.

“You loved him.” It was not a question, but a statement. “That is why you hated me. Because Ikari was using me to be with his wife again.” Rei found her anger gradually slipping away as she gazed at the mostly-brunette head in front of her, but her hands remained tightly clenched in her lap.

With her head still in her hands, Ritsuko could only nod awkwardly. “I wanted him to notice me. To put aside the notion of reuniting with Yui. Maybe then he wouldn't have needed to go through with his plan.”

“I see.”

Rei slowly stood up. She silently walked past Ritsuko towards the exit, but halted near the door as the woman called her name.

“Rei, I'm going to transfer what I can of your medical records to one of the real doctors here,” Ritsuko said, not turning around. “Now that you're human, you don't need me anymore. You wouldn't trust me anyway. I know I wouldn't.”

After waiting a moment to see if she had anything more to say, Rei turned and stalked away, leaving the depressed woman alone in the cafeteria.

* * *

Asuka took the news of Rei's new living arrangements surprisingly well, in Misato's opinion. She had only complained about it for around ten minutes before sighing heavily and saying, “Well she's not staying in _my_ room.”

“I wasn't going to suggest that. Now that Shinji sleeps with you,” Misato had pretended not to notice Asuka's red-faced reaction, but still smirked inwardly at her own 'slip', “his old room should suffice.”

The doctor called to examine Shinji left the room after examining the boy, missing the murderous look directed at his back by Asuka.

“'Permanent vegetative state' my ass!” she muttered from her seat next to Shinji's bed. “It's mental trauma, not a brain injury. Did that moron win his medical license or buy it online?”

Misato sighed.“Let it go, Asuka. You know we need to keep his condition as quiet as possible.”

“It's _not_ permanent. He _will_ recover.”

“Of course he will,” was the reassuring reply from Misato. “With your help, it'll happen sooner than we think.”

Misato rearranged the pillows she had 'borrowed' from Rei's bed as she returned to where she had been sitting on Shinji's bed, putting an arm around and drawing him closer. The previous year, Asuka would have called the older woman a pervert for such an act. Now she knew that Misato's affection for the boy was maternal, not deviant.

Asuka felt a slight pang of jealousy again, but this one was different from what she experienced with Rei earlier. If it wasn't for Shinji's vacant stare -and the difference in hair colour between the two- the scene would have looked for all the world like a child napping next to their mother.

“Oh, speaking of which,” Misato said, interrupting Asuka's thoughts just as her mind began to drift ten years into the past. She cast a reluctant look at Shinji then stood up from where she had just made herself comfortable and walked around to Asuka's side of the bed. “Pilot Soryu.”

“What?”

“Pilot Soryu,” Misato repeated, folding her arms and staring almost disapprovingly at Asuka.

It took a moment to sink in, but Asuka eventually noticed that Misato had shifted into her military persona. In the woman's eyes was the same hard look she had during an Angel attack. She was no longer just 'Misato', now she was Commander Katsuragi. Asuka got to her feet and smartly saluted. “Yes, Commander?”

Misato rewarded Asuka with a small smile, before turning serious again. “Starting today, you are now Pilot Ikari's caretaker. When you are not in your Eva, he is your primary concern. When you _are_ in your Eva, I or somebody else in the command centre will be looking after him.”

Asuka held her position of attention, but blinked at Misato a few times. "You... want me to keep an eye on Shinji... which I've been doing anyway."  
  
"Pilot Soryu, what you have been doing on your own time is not the subject here. Your official _orders_ are now to keep close personal watch on Pilot Ikari until such time as he is recovered and fully fit for duty. Pilot Ikari is a vital military asset, and getting him back in functional shape for missions against Angel and rogue MP Eva attacks like you faced is a top priority. It is your _mission_ now to make sure he gets better. So snap to it, Pilot!"

“Aye, Commander!” Asuka replied, before doubt crossed her face. “Wait, what about school? Hikari called me earlier and said it starts next week.”

Asuka couldn't work out how, but Misato somehow managed to look as if she had tripped while standing still. “Erm...” she began, her face starting to fall back into her normal expression. She finally let out a sigh. “Okay, Asuka. I want you to _think_ about how you answer this question _._ Have you learned anything, _anything_ at all in school since coming to Tokyo-3?”

Asuka's eyes drifted down to the floor as she thought. With a college degree under her belt, there had been almost nothing to hold her attention in school. However, there was one thing that she had to grudgingly admit. “ _Kanji_. That's the only subject I didn't already know. Hikari's been helping me out whenever she can, but I'm still a little weak.”

Misato ran a hand through her hair, all traces of 'Commander Katsuragi' vanishing. “I thought as much,” she said. “In that case, I'll arrange things so the school won't harass you. Since Hikari lives so close to us now, we can see if she would be willing to tutor you more often.”

“Thanks... I think.” Asuka finally dropped her salute, then scrunched up her face in confusion. “So what was all that really about? Getting all serious and _ordering_ me to take care of him?”

“Just making it official, Asuka. You don't need to go to school now, although I still expect you to pay attention to Hikari's lessons, and you can now say that you've been ordered to look after Shinji.”

“Okay... but why would I need to be able to say that?”

Misato grinned slyly and ignored the question. Instead, she said, “When Rei gets back, we'll head home.”

“Don't change the subject! Why would I need to?!”

“Oh yes! We should take her shopping next weekend. She's going to need some new things since her home was destroyed. That should be fun! I'll even look after Shinji while you're in the shops.”

“Misato!!”

* * *

When Rei arrived a few minutes later, nursing bruised knuckles, it was to the sight of Misato lounging on Shinji's bed while Asuka fumed in the corner. Misato turned her head towards the door as Rei entered and flashed a bright smile at her.

“Hi Rei!” she said. “We'll be going home soon. Everything okay with you and Rits?” It was then that she noticed what Rei was doing with her hands.

Asuka noticed this too, and got to her feet. “She do something to make you hit her?” She didn't sound very surprised.

“No,” Rei quietly answered with a shake of her head. “I... punched a wall.”

“You _what?!”_ was Misato's shocked reply.

While Asuka was merely furious after Rei told them what she had learned about her medication, Misato looked as if she wanted to run back to the cafeteria and hit Ritsuko.

Asuka was about to say something, but Rei cut her off. “I do not wish to speak of it right now. Please, may we go home now?”

Misato's face softened up, and she nodded. After ordering the two girls out of the room, she got Shinji ready and joined them in the hallway. Rei noticed instantly that something was different about her brother, and spoke up.

“No surprise you figured it out quicker than Misato, Wondergirl,” Asuka remarked, as her hand pushed Misato's out of the way so that she could guide the boy. Misato moved away and stuck her tongue out at Asuka. It was then that she noticed something different about Shinji.

“Is it just me, or is he moving a little differently too?” Misato asked with a raised eyebrow as they got to the elevator.

Rei was unable to comment, but Asuka stopped and stared at Shinji. She too saw the change. “Yeah, he's actually... well... walking normally?” She shrugged. “Don't really know how to explain it. Before, he'd follow someone and just stand absolutely still when they stopped. And he had his head down.”

Now, Shinji was shifting his weight slightly from one foot to the other and while he was not looking straight down at his feet anymore, his head was moving slightly, as if his eyes were tracking something.

“Is he perhaps sleepwalking?” queried Rei. The other two were unable to answer. The elevator arrived, and they stepped on. Rei looked down at where Shinji and Asuka's hands met as the elevator ascended. Asuka saw her do this, and involuntarily squeezed the boy's hand slightly.

Twenty minutes later, Misato's car left NERV headquarters. Over the last few months, she had toned down her reckless driving whenever Shinji was in the car at the angry request of Asuka, after a sudden turn smacked his head into the passenger window. As Asuka had heatedly explained to Misato when they had stopped after the incident, Shinji had no resistance to outside forces acting on his body, such as when the bullies in the mall had pushed him over.

Now Misato only drove like her old self when she was alone in the car. The Section Two detail assigned to Misato and the pilots had let out a sigh of relief when they learned that their targets would be much easier to protect when their boss didn't always drive like she was being pursued. If it hadn't been for the prohibitive cost of fuelling a gunship, several would have been assigned to the security detail, as they were the only vehicle capable of safely matching the Renault Alpine's speed.

When the group finally arrived at the Katsuragi residence, they found Hikari and Toji inside. As the most responsible of Asuka and Shinji's teenage friends, Misato had made a copy of her keycard for Hikari so that she could feed Pen-Pen in the event that NERV business prevented either her or Asuka being home to take care of the penguin.

The unofficial couple were in the lounge room, with several school books around them. Despite how close they were sitting to each other, their attention was most definitely on the books, judging by Toji's exasperated groan as he stared at his notebook.

Hikari noticed the group walk in, and elbowed Toji in the ribs before standing up. “Good afternoon, Miss Katsuragi!” she said. “I hope you don't mind us being here. With school starting again soon, I wanted to get Toji caught up with some of his old homework.”

“Yeah, and Sakura's been driving me and my dad up the wall the last couple days,” Toji added wearily. “She's runnin' around like mad getting ready _today_ , when school doesn't start 'til next week. We came here to study in peace.”

“That's fine, kids. If we're out, feel free to come here if you ever need some privacy!” Misato replied with a wink. Toji sputtered and Hikari's face turned bright red, but then the sight of Rei slightly behind the woman made both of them open their eyes wide in shock.

“Rei! You've returned!” Hikari immediately ran over and hugged the startled First Child. Toji remained where he was and simply smiled at Rei over Hikari's shoulder. When the pig-tailed girl finally let go, she rapidly began asking Rei questions, before Asuka had to take her by the arm and lead her back to the couch, promising to explain.

“Come along, Rei. Let's get some ice for that hand,” said Misato, before heading back into the kitchen and opening the freezer to retrieve an ice pack.

“Are those two...” Rei began as she placed the pack over her sore knuckles.

Misato nodded as she sat down at the kitchen table. “Yep, they've fallen for each other. I noticed it as soon as they showed up at my door. It's so cute how they think nobody else knows!”

Rei turned slightly in her seat and looked at Asuka, who was chatting with Hikari on the couch, with Shinji sitting next to her. “Hmm...”

“Hey, Miss Katsuragi, do you have a moment?” Toji nervously asked as he walked in, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sure, what's on your mind?” Misato replied, before leaning over in her seat and turning the kettle on.

“Um... I need to ask a favour of you.”

The woman smirked. “Did we come home too early? Need us to leave for a couple hours?”

Misato found Toji almost as much fun to tease as Asuka. But where Asuka would get red-faced and angry while hurling denials, Toji simply blushed and fell silent.

“I will leave you two alone,” Rei said before heading into the lounge room, where she was immediately pulled into the conversation between the school friends in order to reveal what she could of her return.

Toji took the seat Rei had just vacated. “No, nothin' like that. It's about my sister, actually. She... wants to spend some time with you.”

All thoughts of further embarrassing the boy fled Misato's mind. “ _Me?_ Why would she want to hang around with me of all people?”

“I dunno. Yesterday she was almost demandin' that I ask you.”

Misato scratched her head. Whenever Sakura had visited, she would usually sit quietly next to Shinji, as if lending support through her proximity.

The kettle whistled, and she got up to make a cup of coffee. Toji waved off her offer of a drink. The moment of quiet as she poured the boiling water into her cup gave Misato time to think, and the realisation quickly struck.

“I know why now,” she said as she sat back down. “Back when she first visited, Sakura got sad when she couldn't wake Shinji. I ended up hugging her, and she... ah... compared me rather favourably to her mother.”

Toji visibly flinched at the mention of his late mother. “Well, Sakura's the youngest in the family, so she was hit the hardest by our mum's death. It took a while for us to be able to coax her out of her room. She 'd stay in there all day, and only come out for meals. It must 've been one hell uva hug for her to bring our mum up like that.”

Misato took a long sip of her coffee. She had been at ground zero for Second Impact, where her father died saving her life, and the incident had rendered her mute for several years. She could certainly sympathise with how the boy's sister felt. “Alright. I'm taking Asuka and Rei to the mall on the weekend, and Shinji's obviously coming with us. We should be able to squeeze your sister into my car as well.”

“Really? Thanks, Miss Katsuragi!” Toji excitedly said, letting out a sigh of relief. “Uh, if ya want, I could see if my dad would lend ya his car for the trip. The five of you might be a bit squished in that sports car of yours.” He cast a surreptitious glance towards the lounge room and lowered his voice. “'Sides, if you're takin' Asuka _and_ Sakura shopping, you're gonna need plenty of space.”

“Oh?” Misato raised an eyebrow. “Is your sister turning into a little shopaholic already?”

“Yeah,” Toji replied with a chuckle. “Dad and I just can't say no to her, and I don't fancy your chances either.”

Misato stifled a giggle. “Yes, I've seen her order you around. Alright, tell your father that I'll pay for the gas if he lets me borrow his car.”

“Are you kidding? He'd probably fill it up on Friday night just so you wouldn't have to. You're kind of his boss after all.”

“Ooh, right. I am too...” It had slipped Misato's mind that both Toji's and Kensuke's fathers were workers at NERV. And since she was the big boss now...

“Well thanks for doing this, Miss Katsuragi,” Toji said as he stood up. “She's gonna be thrilled when she finds out.”

A shrill “ _What?!”_ from the next room cut off any further conversation, but Misato was unsurprised and merely waved Toji off to join the other teenagers.

* * *

With some reassurance from Asuka, Rei agreed to reveal more than she originally intended about her past to the trustworthy class representative. The subject of her drug regimen had arisen, and when Rei clenched both her eyes and fists shut, she heard Hikari's expected surprise. What she was not expecting was for Hikari to leap from the couch and wrap her arms around Rei where she knelt on the floor.

“W-why are you hugging me again?” a confused Rei asked.

Hikari pulled back slightly to look at the girl's face. “I'm comforting you, Rei. Giving you my support. If you ever need help, _please_ come to one of us. Don't try and keep things bottled up inside. That only makes it worse when they break out.”

“I... I see,” Rei stammered.

“Hey Wondergirl,” Asuka interjected. “You're supposed to hug someone back if they're hugging you.”

Rei's hands hesitantly lifted up from her sides, and placed themselves around Hikari's back. Despite the awkwardness, Asuka grinned reassuringly at Rei, which the blue-haired girl took to mean that she had done it correctly.

Toji walked in just in time to see Rei reciprocate the hug, and Asuka shot him a warning glance. Toji decided it meant 'don't get any ideas', and raised his hands in a defensive gesture while shaking his head. “Hikari, we should probably get going,” he called to the brunette.

Hikari jumped back from Rei, startled by Toji's intrusion, and turned to glare suspiciously at him. Whatever it was she had been expecting to see was absent, and she let the glare drop from her face. “Alright, you should be pretty well caught up. For now, anyway.”

The two of them moved out into the kitchen, and Hikari bowed  in front of Misato. “Thank you for letting us stay here, Miss Katsuragi.”

“Yeah, and thanks again for taking Sakura,” Toji added.

“That's fine, kids,” Misato airily replied. “And please, call me Misato. There's no need to be so formal.”

Hikari and Toji said their goodbyes and left the apartment. Just as they rounded the corner into the small hallway leading to the front door, Misato saw Hikari make a grab for Toji's hand and smiled to herself. She turned and walked into the lounge room, where Rei had taken Hikari's place on the couch.

“How's your hand now, Rei?” asked Misato.

Rei looked down at the ice pack she had placed on the table. “Better, thank you. And I must thank you again for taking me into your home on such short notice.”

“You know, First,” Asuka leaned in close to Rei and whispered with a grin. “A hug is also a great way to show your thanks to someone like her.”

The blue-haired girl's head shot up, and her eyes nervously darted towards Misato, who was glancing out of the balcony window and hadn't heard Asuka's comment. Looking back at the redhead who simply grinned wider and nodded, Rei gathered herself and stood up, coming around the couch to stand behind Misato.

“M-Misato?”

Misato turned around and saw the girl. “What's up? Want some fresh ice?” she asked, mistaking Rei's fidgeting hands for them still being sore.

“No, n-nothing of the sort. It's...” Rei glanced back at the couch, where an exasperated Asuka waved her on. She took a deep breath and turned to face Misato again, looking her in the eye. “I would like to express my gratitude for your willingness to accept me into your home.”

“Rei, you already-” Misato managed to get out, before Rei moved quickly forward and put her arms around the woman's torso. “...Oh,” she finished lamely, before a warm smile lit up her face as she returned the hug. “You're very welcome, Rei. Remember now, that my home is your home. If there's ever anything you need, let me know.”

Rei could feel the tears attempting to form in her eyes, but this time for a different reason. It was the first time in her life that she felt... accepted. As if someone cared about _who_ she was, instead of what she had been created for. They broke the hug after about a minute, to the hidden regret of both parties.

While Misato hunted for the television remote, Rei sat back on the couch and looked expectantly at Asuka.

“...What?” The redhead raised an eyebrow at the unexpected attention.

“I would like to thank you as well, Asuka.”

Rei moved towards her, but Asuka put a restraining hand on the blue-haired girl's shoulder. “I appreciate it Wondergirl, but I'm not the touchy feely type.”

As one, Misato and Rei stared pointedly at the spot on the couch where Shinji and Asuka's hands sat. Asuka's face reddened, and she stammered, “H-hey, this doesn't count!” as she let go. “Misato, you've ordered me to make his well-being my priority!”

“Why would she do that?” Rei asked. “You had already made it your duty to look after him.”

“Oh, I did it so that Asuka could explain away why she leads him by the hand everywhere,” Misato cheerily answered. “Since she still doesn't want to admit- Oops!” she added, before exaggeratedly covering her mouth at her 'slip'.

“Admit what?” Asuka asked in confusion. After a moment, her face suddenly turned possibly the brightest shade of red Misato had ever seen on the girl.

“ _MISATO!!”_

* * *

That night, the members of the Katsuragi residence decided to order take-out. At Rei's request, a vegetarian dish was added to the order for her, and when a curious Asuka wondered why, she simply answered, “Meat... the taste of blood... it disgusts me.”

When shown the room she would be sleeping in, Rei said, “This is more than adequate for my needs, thank you.”

_'Like brother, like sister,'_ Asuka darkly thought, remembering Shinji's lack of protest about the converted closet.

As if sensing her disapproval, Rei added, “I will mainly be sleeping and keeping my clothes here. I do not require a large space.”

Despite claims that the bedclothes were freshly washed, Rei still fell asleep with the lingering scent of her brother in her nostrils.

It was the most relaxed night of sleep she could ever recall having.

The week passed by in a flash. When Saturday morning arrived, at ten o'clock sharp there was a knock at the door of the Katsuragi residence. As Rei was already in the kitchen preparing a cup of tea, she was the one that opened the door to see a beaming young Sakura standing in front of her brother.

“Good morning, you must be Rei!” Sakura was almost bouncing up and down in excitement.

Rei gave a small smile in return and said, “It is good to finally meet you, Sakura Suzuhara.”

“Oh yeah, you two ain't actually met face to face yet,” Toji noted.

Rei invited them both in but Toji politely declined, saying that he was merely dropping Sakura off, before waving goodbye to the two girls and heading back downstairs.

“Big bro's told me all about you!” Sakura said as they walked into the kitchen.

Rei stiffened. “Did he?” she quietly asked.

“Yeah, you piloted an Eva and protected us just like Asuka and Shinji! Big bro also said you didn't have any friends because you're really shy.”

“O-oh, I see.” Rei let out a mental sigh of relief. She had been worried for a moment that Toji had actually told his sister _everything._ She moved to the kitchen counter and turned the kettle on again, wordlessly taking out another cup.

“If you want, I'll be your friend, Rei!”

The smile on Rei's face as she turned around was much bigger this time. “Thank you, Sakura. I would appreciate that.”

* * *

The three pilots sat in the back of the dark grey sports utility vehicle that belonged to Toji's father, with Shinji in the middle, while Sakura rode up front. One look at Asuka's eyes reflected in the rear view mirror was enough to convince Misato _not_ to attempt anything 'fun' with somebody else's car.

“If there's another attack today, I'm gonna throw that bastard into the sun.” Asuka's tone indicated she would not tolerate _any_ interruption to the day's proceedings, and Misato hummed in agreement. She had been able to catch up on paperwork to the point where she had been able to take a day off and leave Ritsuko in charge.

Something she would have to repay her friend for, one day.

When they reached the mall, Sakura's feet hit the ground almost before the car stopped moving and Asuka wasn't far behind. Both had been looking forward to this day for separate reasons.

Asuka was there to browse and buy, to have a taste of normalcy. The fact that she was also shopping for Rei only made it more interesting, in  her opinion. Having to buy nearly an entire wardrobe at once made Asuka glad that Toji's father had offered his car.

Sakura, on the other hand, had only two goals in mind for the day. Three, if spending time with Misato counted. Since her goals would be quickly attained, the group decided to let Misato and Sakura do their shopping first, while Asuka and Rei waited in the food court with Shinji.

The young girl seemed to know exactly where to go for her first stop, and was in and out in a flash with her purchase, a rather nice sports jacket for Toji. Her second stop, however, took a bit longer. Misato was almost dragged by the hand into what felt like a hundred shops, each greeter smiling warmly at the excited girl and offering an apologetic grin to the poor woman when they eventually left empty-handed.

Sakura finally found what she was looking for in the back of the final store. When Misato saw what it was, she was almost overcome by emotion at the thoughtfulness of the young girl. The second she spotted it, Sakura turned around and put a finger to her lips. “Keep this a secret, please!” she loudly whispered despite the store being nearly empty, as if the recipient was close by.

The bemused clerk rang up the purchase, and Sakura finally relaxed her pace as she and Misato returned to the food court, where the girl immediately jumped into the large curved seat that made up half of their booth.

“Sooo... what did you get, Sakura?” Asuka inquired as they sat down.

Sakura shook her head in refusal. “I'm not telling yet!”

The three older females smiled at the younger one's defensiveness, and then went about ordering lunch. Strangely, Shinji seemed to be refusing to eat, simply staring down at the table. A quick look into his eyes reassured Asuka that he had not regressed into his previous state, but offered no explanation for his inaction.

“Maybe he's just not hungry,” suggested Sakura. With no way of knowing, Asuka had to concede that the girl was probably right.

Rei was the only one who did not get fish and chips, instead opting for a simple salad once more.

Asuka sighed. “We really need to do something about you, Rei. Even if you're a vegetarian, there's more to food than just... well, vegetables.”

“What are you suggesting?” Rei asked inquisitively.

“Rice, pasta, even tofu if you want to try a meat substitute,” Misato promptly answered for Asuka. “Ritsuko and I were on a vegetarian diet for a while in college. Couldn't stand the taste of tofu, myself. Probably why I caved before she did.”

“We should do some grocery shopping before we head home,” suggested Asuka. “Not only to get some things for Wondergirl, but I'm sick of instant meals and take-out, and Hikari shouldn't be coming over so often just to cook us dinner.”

The class representative usually stopped by the Katsuragi residence three or four times a week, out of concern for their eating habits. Asuka refused to allow Misato to prepare meals, but she herself barely knew how to prepare anything more basic than eggs and ready-made soup.

Asuka wiped her mouth clean with a napkin. “Well, we can sort that out after Wondergirl and I have our fun. We're off now! Come on, First.” With that, the two female pilots got up and left.

“Will they be okay?” Sakura asked, noticing Rei's reluctance to leave.

Misato nodded. “They'll be fine. Asuka's been looking forward to this for a while. It's a chance for her to just be a normal girl, instead of a saviour of humanity. Rei needs a bit more time to... get used to Asuka I guess.”

Sakura thought about this for a moment, before returning to her chips.

While they waited, Misato took a pen out of her purse, and she and Sakura entertained themselves with the children's puzzles written on the placemat inserts. After completing a couple of mazes, Sakura shifted to Misato's lap, and the woman softly smiled and wrapped an arm around Sakura to keep her steady. Together, they attacked the mighty find-a-word puzzle.

“It warms my heart to see such a loving family out and about,” a female voice said.

Misato looked up, into the wrinkled face of a smiling old woman with a cane in one hand and a tray in the other.

“Would you mind terribly if I sat down here?” the woman asked. “I'm afraid there's no free tables at the moment.”

A quick look around at the food court brought surprise to Misato's face. She had been so wrapped up in enjoying the time spent with Sakura that she hadn't even noticed the place filling up as the lunch hour approached. “Of course you can, madam,” Misato replied.

The woman nodded her thanks. “Please, call me Yuuka.” She sat down and leaned her cane against the table. “Ah, my old bones aren't what they used to be,” she lamented as she began to eat.

As Sakura and Misato returned to the puzzle, Misato could spot Yuuka occasionally sneaking glances at their interactions in between bites of her lunch. After Sakura found a particularly long word, Yuuka spoke up. “Your daughter is quite smart.”

Sakura smiled widely at the compliment, but Misato replied, “Um, she's not my daughter.”

“Oh? Are you babysitting her then?”

Misato had to think for a moment, before settling on a simple reply. It wasn't worth the effort to explain the entire situation. “For today, I suppose that's accurate.”

Yuuka nodded towards the until-now ignored person at their table. “He must be your son then.”

_'I wish,'_ Misato thought before shaking her head. “No, I'm his guardian. He... lost both his parents and now I look after him, along with two other children.” 

“Ah,” Yuuka replied, then stared approvingly at Misato. “You are a wonderful person then, Miss...?”

“Misato Katsuragi.”

“You are a wonderful person, Misato Katsuragi. It does my heart proud to see someone like you. Not many people would be willing to look after one orphan, let alone three.”

Misato blushed and rubbed the back of her head as her face began to light up in embarrassment. “T-thank you,” she stammered.

“Is there a young man in your life? Someone to help you take care of them?”

“There was someone, but...” Misato shook her head. “He died last year, before I could tell him how I felt.” Sensing her sadness, Sakura twisted around and hugged Misato.

“I am truly sorry to hear that.”

Misato smiled and waved off the apology. “I have the children now, and I love all three of them as if they were my own. My work keeps me too busy to pursue a romantic relationship anyway.”

“Well, perhaps some day, when you least expect it, someone will come along and sweep you off your feet,” Yuuka said with a smile. She slowly got to her feet. “Thank you for the conversation, Miss Katsuragi. I hope to see you again, perhaps with the rest of your charges, but if not I wish you a long and happy life.”

Misato and Sakura waved at the old woman as she wandered off. Sakura continued her word hunt, but Misato's thoughts were elsewhere. Her chat with the friendly senior citizen had stirred something within her. She looked down at the girl in her lap. Despite Sakura being someone else's child, something about their current situation felt right to the lonely woman. While she would not be able to marry the man she loved and have a baby, perhaps...

_'...as if they were my own...'_ Her own words echoed inside her head.

She eventually asked Sakura to hop off her lap, The girl looked confused and slightly disappointed, but acquiesced. The Commander of NERV moved away from the table, and made a call. “Rits, it's Misato,” she said. “I have a question for you: how difficult would it be for me to adopt the Children?”

* * *

“I can't believe you were planning on buying seven identical sets of clothing!”

  
“I do not know why you find that so appalling.”

“Do you _want_ to go back to looking exactly the same each day? A girl has to have some variety in her outfits.”

“Are you still upset about my previous wardrobe?”

Asuka sighed and put a hand to her forehead. “Not as much as I was when you first told me. I mean seriously, nothing but school uniforms? At least then there was a decent reason why you didn't care. You have no excuse now.”

Asuka had bought a couple each of blouses, skirts, and dresses, both red and green. Despite Rei's weak protests, she now owned several sets of light blue clothing, as well as a few white blouses and skirts. At Asuka's insistence, both girls now also owned two pairs of what the redhead had called 'comfy pants'.

“Some days,” Asuka had explained, “you just don't feel like wearing a dress, like maybe it's too cold. That's where comfy pants come in. Something to wear while you're lounging around the house.”

Rei glanced at the trolley that Asuka was now pushing. Having to buy not only normal clothing for both of them, but underclothes, toiletries, and several make-up items -that Rei was unsure she would ever use- made the trolley a necessity.

According to Asuka, the task of carrying the bags traditionally fell to whatever male companions were accompanying them, but the redhead made it clear that she was not going to make Shinji act like a mindless servant. She had almost done it once, and it had made her feel slightly ill. Rei had quietly expressed her approval at Asuka's treatment.

“I'm still surprised at something though,” Asuka said. “All that money you have. Didn't you spend _any_ of your pilot wages? Why not just buy your own house while you're at it?”

“Because I do not want to live on my own anymore,” Rei answered, staring directly ahead. “Living alone, the mere thought of it... it scares me.”

“...Oh,” was all Asuka could offer as a response. “Well... now that you're living with Misato, you'll probably feel like you're at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.”

Rei smiled slightly. “Yes, she does have a rather large presence. As if she could fill a room on her own.” Asuka grinned fondly, which lasted until Rei continued speaking. “You, on the other hand, accomplish the same feat through sheer volume sometimes.”

The look on the redhead's face could only be described as incredulous. “Did... did you just... _sass_ me, First?”

“Y-yes? Did I do it wrong? I apologise!” Rei bowed deeply, almost bumping her head on the edge of the shopping cart in her haste.

“Nah, you're fine,” Asuka reassured the girl with a chuckle. “It was a little weak, but since it's your first time I'll let it slide.”

The smile returned to Rei's face, and they both made their way to the food court in companionable silence.

When they reached the table they had left a couple hours earlier, it was to the sight of Misato relaxing against the back wall of the booth with an arm around Sakura, sitting sideways on her lap and dozing lightly. Misato raised a finger to her lips to signal them to be quiet.

“How did it go?” she softly asked.

Asuka glanced first at Rei, then at Sakura before saying in a low tone, “Apart from the beginning where Rei thought it would be fine to have seven identical sets, pretty good.”

“I bought something for you as well, Misato,” Rei added as she stuck a hand into one of her shopping bags. She withdrew a couple of roughly rectangular boxes and set the larger one down in front of Misato. The slightly smaller box was placed closer to Sakura, who was starting to stir at the noise.

Seeing that the girl was waking up, Misato gently shifted her on her lap and reached towards the box. She opened it and grinned, withdrawing a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses.

“Asuka is to thank for the idea. She noted that you have not been wearing yours since Third Impact.”

“Yeah, they were dropped somewhere in the halls of NERV, most likely,” Misato answered as she put the sunglasses on. “Ooh, these are nice. Thanks Rei!”

“Did you get me a pair too, Rei?” Sakura asked as she opened the box in front of her. Inside was an identical pair of sunglasses, only smaller. At Rei's encouraging nod, she squealed in delight and put them on.

Misato lowered her shades, looking at Rei over the top. “I appreciate the gift, but why did you buy them? These must have cost quite a bit.”

“I wanted to express my gratitude to you-” Rei stopped as Misato palmed her face. “Did I say something wrong?”

Around her hand, a smile was barely visible on Misato's face. “No, no. It's just...” She dropped her hand and sighed exasperatedly. “There's no need to repay me.”

“But I wish to.”

“Just give up, Misato, I couldn't talk her out of it either,” Asuka warned. What she neglected to mention was that she hadn't tried very hard to dissuade Rei. “Let's just get the groceries and head home.”

* * *

Even Asuka was surprised at how much they walked out of the grocery store with. They now had a second cart full of food due to Rei's distaste for meat and fish, and Misato had suggested buying a large amount of both pasta and rice since they could both be stored for a long time.

The redhead made a detour into a bookstore on their way out of the mall, returning with a couple of recipe books. “Pasta's easy to cook, and I'm sure I saw a rice cooker somewhere in the house,” she explained, earning a quirked eyebrow from Misato for apparently knowing more than she did about the contents of her own house. “But on their own they're going to get boring fast. Since I'm not letting Katsuragi the Culinary Catastrophe anywhere near a stove, I may as well learn how to do it instead.”

“Hey!”

“Besides,” Asuka went on, ignoring Misato's indignation. “Cooking can't be that hard, considering Shinji was able to somehow not screw it up.”

The boy in question was starting to look more and more listless as they left the mall. When they reached the parking lot, Shinji stumbled over the curb and would have fallen over if it hadn't been for Asuka's quick reaction

“Get him into the car, Asuka. Rei and I will handle the bags,” Misato said. The jovial mood had disappeared from everyone, even Sakura, at Shinji's apparent deterioration. The concerned look on Asuka's face almost made Misato break the speed limit as she headed home, just to get the boy to a guaranteed safe place as quickly as possible.

When they reached the apartment, Misato ordered Asuka to go ahead with Shinji and lay him down on the couch. Knowing that the girl would refuse to come back down, Misato didn't press her to assist them, instead sending Sakura to ask her brother to help.

“Something's definitely wrong with him,” Asuka said as soon as Misato stepped through the door. “I had to almost drag him out of the elevator and he nearly collapsed.”

Misato swore under her breath, and marched through the apartment to the couch upon which Shinji lay. In the few seconds he had been out of someone's sight, he had curled in on himself. Misato gently pulled his head away from his knees and cursed again at what she saw. The last time she had seen Shinji look like this was...

When the JSSDF sergeant had a gun to the boy's head.

“Do we need to take him to the hospital?” Though she wasn't looking, Misato could still sense the anxiety emanating from Asuka, standing just behind her. She slowly shook her head.

“No, this isn't medical. I believe Shinji's remembering the past, but it's much more this time. Now he's... re-enacting it, so to speak.”

Misato stood up, and suddenly grabbed Shinji by the arm and yanked him off the couch to Asuka's loud protests. Ignoring the redhead, she stood still for a moment, staring down at the boy by her feet. On the edge of her hearing, she could detect a faint mumbling from the boy. The only thing that was missing from the scene was a gun in her hand, and she would have felt as if she were back in NERV, attempting to drag Shinji to his Eva whilst avoiding an invading army hellbent on murdering everybody.

“Sorry, Asuka. I had to be sure,” Misato apologised, kneeling down to pick the boy up and place him back on the couch. “But now I know exactly what he's recalling. The time just before Third Impact, when I found him.”

“Oh.  _Scheiße_ _. _ ”

“Just stay with him for now, while we bring the shopping up. Hopefully your presence will snap him out of it.”

Without waiting for a reply, Misato turned and left the apartment.

* * *

After unpacking and saying goodbye to Toji and Sakura, Rei went to her room to start organising her new clothing while Misato returned to the lounge room. She began to sneak towards the couch, and what she saw as she got closer brought a smile to the woman's face.

Both teens were on the couch with Shinji's head on Asuka's lap while she softly stroked his hair. The boy had his eyes closed, looking as if he was indeed asleep. If it hadn't been for what happened with Shinji earlier, Misato would have found it almost adorable.

“He's looking better already,” she whispered in Asuka's ear.

Asuka somehow managed to jump to her feet without disturbing Shinji. “Damnit, Misato! Don't do that!” she exclaimed as quietly as she could, her red face showing how mortified she was about being caught in such a position. The smirk on Misato's face only made her angrier.

“It'll be dinner time soon,” Misato said, as if nothing happened. “Do you still plan on making something?”

“I was going to, but...” Asuka hesitantly replied, looking down at Shinji.

A soft voice from the doorway said, “I will watch over him,” as Rei walked in.

Misato looked between the two. “Well sort it out amongst yourselves, I'm going to take a shower.”

As soon as the bathroom door closed behind the woman, Rei turned to Asuka and said, “You will have to learn to trust other people with Shinji. You cannot watch over him every moment of every day.”

“You think I don't know that, First?” Asuka hissed. “What am I going to do while we're doing simulations or tests? Misato's the Commander, she won't be able to watch him all the time either.”

“Seeing as you are the one officially in charge of him, that is your decision to make.” Rei moved to the couch and took Asuka's place with Shinji's head on her lap. “Please, for the moment at least, trust me with him,” she said without taking her eyes off the boy.

“I'm fine with you keeping an eye on him, but what happens when he has a nightmare?”

Rei finally looked up. “Then I will call for you. You will only be in the next room.” Her right hand began to stroke Shinji's hair. Asuka noticed this and grimaced.

“Fine,” she said, and changed the subject. “What do you want for dinner?”

“Whatever you make, I shall eat, provided-”

“Yeah yeah, I know. No meat or fish. Since this is my first time, I'll just make the same for everybody.”

Preparing dinner went surprisingly smoothly, in Asuka's opinion. She decided to start simple, with a vegetable stir fry with rice. The rice cooker she found under the sink required some dusting, due to Shinji using other methods and Misato not even knowing how to use it, but it still functioned.

The actual stir fry part was almost laughably simple to her, as all it required was chopping vegetables and putting them into a wok. Only the sauce proved a hindrance -and a minor one at that- to the budding chef because of the multiple different ingredients it required.

Pen-Pen stepped out of his fridge, to be rewarded with a salmon dinner. He patted the redhead on the leg with a flipper in thanks before heading into the lounge room, where he turned the television on to watch the news.

When Misato left the bathroom, she inhaled deeply and remarked, “That smells pretty good, Asuka.”

The redhead turned around and waved a spoon at her. “Of course it does, I made it! Did you expect anything different?” A smirk from her guardian was the only response she got as  Misato sat down at the table.

All three females enjoyed the simple but tasty meal. Shinji remained asleep, as none of them wished to disturb him even for a meal. When they finished, they retired to the lounge room to watch television with Pen-Pen.

A couple of hours later, Misato yawned and got up, heading to her room stating that she needed to get up early the next day to go into NERV. Rei stayed seated, and Asuka went into the kitchen to clean up, not noticing the blue-haired girl's head nodding back and forth as she attempted to fight off sleep.

Asuka was washing the wok when she heard heavy footsteps behind her. “Trouble sleeping, Misato?” she asked without turning around. The lack of response didn't bother her, until she heard the shattering of cups behind her as they hit the ground. She turned around just in time to see the table get flipped over.

“Wha- _Shinji?!_ ”

Shinji was standing in front of her, holding a chair over his head and mumbling something. She backed away as the chair hit the ground near her feet.

“Shinji, calm down!”

For a moment, it seemed as if her words had reached Shinji's dream-addled mind. He stood there for a long time, hunched over and breathing heavily. Asuka breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to call for Rei when Shinji surged forward with a wild look in his eyes.

And almost lifted her off the ground as he wrapped his hands around her neck. Her back slammed into the fridge and Asuka felt what was left of the breath in her lungs escape past her lips in a whoosh of air, a moment before Shinji's thumbs pressed into the centre of her throat and began to squeeze.

The expression on Shinji's face stunned the redhead into inaction more than the impact against the unyielding metal door against her back. She had seen those eyes only a week ago, through the cockpit camera of an Evangelion.

It was the look of a boy caught in the depths of madness.

With blackness creeping in on her vision, and with her blood pounding in her ears, Asuka tried to pry Shinji's hands away from her throat. The struggling girl may as well have tried to shift a mountain.

Realising her effort was useless, Asuka did the only thing she could think of. “Sh-Shinji,” she croaked, as her hand shakily reached out towards the boys face.

Despite her ears being filled with the sound of her own rapidly pumping blood, the words that left Shinji's mouth came through clearly, freezing her hand in midair.

“...so everybody, just go and die.”


	17. Chapter 17

“...so everybody, just go and die.”

Rei was jolted fully awake at the utterance of those words from the kitchen. She had heard the crash of the table and cups, but in her previous drowsy state had attributed the noise to the television. As she got to her feet, memories flooding her head and freezing her blood, Pen-Pen was bowled over by her leg as he tried to get the girl's attention with alarmed-sounding squawks.

She didn't need to speak his language to know that something terrible was happening.

Mumbling an apology to the startled avian, who was pointing frantically at the kitchen and more concerned about what was happening there than any physical injury, Rei dashed through the doorway to be confronted with her worst fear. Shinji had a feebly struggling Asuka pinned against the fridge, her toes barely touching the ground.

Rei stared in horror as Asuka's upraised arm dropped limply to her side, until something in the shadow of the fridge next to the dangling limb caught the blue-haired girl's eye and drove her forward.

The broom smacked into the back of Shinji's knees, collapsing his legs and dropping the boy to the ground. Asuka stayed on her feet for a moment longer, before roughly sliding down the fridge door to land harshly on her rear. She immediately began to cough and sputter as fresh air filled her lungs, and a hastily thrown out arm was all that prevented her body from falling sideways.

Realising that Asuka was the more injured of the two teenagers, Rei tossed the broom aside and knelt down next to Asuka, gently prying a hand away from the girl's throat with one hand while straightening her head with the other.

“It's alright Asuka, let me have a look,” Rei hurriedly said, gazing into Asuka's wide eyes. The redhead gulped and struggled to speak, but only a hissing squeak left her mouth. “Don't try to talk. Just relax, and breathe slowly and deeply. Shinji is okay,” she added as Asuka glanced past her shoulder. Rei felt a hint of satisfaction at the brief moment of worry in the redhead's eyes that evaporated at those three comforting words.

Rei exhaled in relief as she examined Asuka's neck as best as she could. She found herself suddenly thankful that her brother was in such a poor condition. If he still had the physical strength he possessed from his months of Evangelion training... she would have had to endure the gruesome sound of a neck being snapped, a life being snuffed out like a candle.

Again. Rei thrust that disturbing thought aside and returned her attention to Asuka.

The marks from Shinji's hands on her throat were faint, and would likely disappear by morning. The memory of the attack, on the other hand, would take much longer to fade away. Satisfied that there appeared to be no lasting damage, Rei turned and looked at Shinji, who had curled into a foetal position and was now shaking like a wind-blown tree.

Asuka slid herself forward slightly, and looked at Shinji's face. While he was still breathing fast and heavily the madness was gone, replaced by fear in his cobalt eyes. Her own eyes closed slightly and her head drooped, before she leaned back against the fridge. When Rei turned back to face her, Asuka brought a hand to her mouth and mimed drinking, getting a nod from the other girl who stood up and ran the tap.

A glass of water was handed to Asuka, who began to greedily gulp it down until a searing pain in her throat almost immediately made her cough the water up all over herself. A pale hand grabbed the arm holding the glass.

“Slowly,” came the calm instruction. Asuka nodded, and began to drink again. The cool liquid flowing down her throat served to ease some of the pain, and when the glass was finished she handed it to Rei, only to be given a full glass back after a moment.

After finishing half of the second glass, Asuka set it down next to her and hoarsely said, “Thanks, Wondergirl.”

Rei frowned. “You should not speak. Your throat may be damaged.”

“'m fine,” Asuka rasped, before coughing and wincing at the jolt of pain. “Not like I haven't been strangled before.” Rei raised a shocked eyebrow at this, but Asuka waved off her unspoken question and asked one of her own instead. “I don't suppose you know what the hell that was all about, do you?”

Rei's immediate turn of the head towards Shinji at the question was as good as any answer.

“Spill it.”

“I-I do not know if I should,” Rei hesitantly said.

Asuka finished the glass of water before replying testily. “He just tried to _kill me_. I think I deserve to know.”

Rei looked helplessly towards Shinji, before sighing in defeat and saying, “Do you remember me telling you, when we were leaving NERV the day after my return, about the four major events that led to Shinji initiating Third Impact?”

Asuka nodded. “Misato and I dying, and two 'private matters',” she said, bringing up her arms to make finger quotes.

“What just happened was Shinji reliving the final event.”

Finally feeling recovered enough to stand, Asuka got up and moved over to Shinji, pulling the boy up by his shoulders and moving him into the inside corner of the kitchen counter to keep him vertical. “I would have remembered him strangling me before.” Asuka sat down next to Shinji and rubbed her neck, remembering awakening to those familiar hands around her throat. “Well, _before_ I woke up on the beach.”

Rei shook her head. “No, you were not the victim. But at the same time, you were.”

Asuka glared at the bluenette. “Wondergirl, it's late and you're not making sense. _Fix that_.”

With what looked like an extreme amount of reluctance, Rei moved to sit in front of the other two pilots. “Alright. I will tell you what Shinji experienced in the moments before Third Impact. But I must warn you, it will be disturbing.” The blue-haired girl shuddered. “Ever since my separation from Lilith, my mind has occasionally insisted on recalling that memory.”

And so Rei told Asuka of the time when Shinji had begged for her help, only to be coldly refused.

“ _M-mein Gott...”_

Rei bowed her head in apology. “I am sorry you had to hear that, Asuka. If not for your insistence, I would have never told you.”

“He... he wanted my help. I was his last hope. And all I did was push him away again...”

“That was _not_ you,” Rei was quick to say. “You could not have done anything. It was the Asuka in Shinji's mind that said those words.”

“That doesn't matter!” Asuka's voice was starting to return to normal, but she still coughed roughly as she raised her voice. “My attitude, my actions towards Shinji gave him that impression! I'm just as guilty!” The girl turned to the boy next to her and threw her arms around his shoulders, hugging him fiercely to her. “I'm sorry. Shinji, I'm so sorry...” Though there was no response, his shaking subsided as their proximity relaxed Shinji's body.

Rei tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but it was instantly  shrugged off. She sighed and sat back on her haunches. “You must not blame yourself. You were as harshly shaped by your past as he was. Any fault lies with those who sought to bring about Instrumentality: Gendo Ikari and the men of SEELE.”

In Asuka's arms, Shinji's body had stilled completely and his breathing began to slow down from it's near-hyperventilation state, but she didn't move from her position. She knew that, ultimately, the First Child was correct. The upbringing of both the Second and Third Child had been specifically tailored to meet SEELE's demands for a sacrifice and a trigger . T hat didn't make it any easier to swallow ; Asuka had always believed that she would shape her own future, not have it decided for her.

But destiny was clearly a bitch.

“Rei...” Asuka eventually said. “Misato can't know about this.”

Rei tilted her head slightly. “Why not? She will at least want to know why the cups and chair are broken. And perhaps the marks on your neck, if they don't disappear in time.”

“Because she'll be forced to act. Misato might be able to pretend some things in our lives don't happen, like how we snipe at each other, but her wards actually _attacking_ one another?”

Rei's mouth opened in an O of understanding. “Even the Commander of NERV would be unable to ignore something of this magnitude.”

“Mmhm,” Asuka hummed in agreement. “Shinji would be locked up, chained to a bed. How would that make you feel, to know your brother is practically imprisoned for something beyond his control?”

“Upset,” Rei answered instantly. “Confused, angry perhaps. I would be distracted. I might even lose control again.”

“Exactly.”

Rei stood up, and began righting the table and chairs, placing the broken one out of the way. “I understand what you are saying. While part of me believes you are once more exaggerating into a worst case scenario, the rest has no desire to take that risk. Shinji is important to me. To _us_. I will keep this secret until you decide otherwise.”

“Then we're in agreement. Don't worry about the kitchen, I'll make something up for Misato tomorrow morning.” Asuka yawned into Shinji's shoulder as a brief clatter of pottery marked the disposal of the broken cups into the rubbish bin.

“Wark?”

The two girls turned at the noise, to see Pen-Pen's head sticking through the doorway. He ducked back slightly at the attention, before realising that the disturbance was over.

“It's okay, Pen-Pen. Everything's under control now,” Asuka called out. The genetically-modified penguin breathed a sigh of relief, an almost comical act coming from a bird, and waddled into the kitchen. Before he was halfway to his fridge, Rei picked him up and hugged the penguin to her chest.

“I am sorry for injuring you,” she apologised. “Are you alright?” Pen-Pen worked a flipper free of the embrace and patted the girl on the shoulder, to which Rei smiled. Asuka too, found the corners of her mouth twitching upward at the scene.

“I will also keep _this_ a secret.” At Asuka's confused look, Rei pointed at her and Shinji while cradling Pen-Pen in one arm. “Whatever your feelings are for my brother, they are _your_ feelings. Misato will not know of them either.”

Asuka wobbled slightly as she got to her feet. “Uh, thanks?” she replied. “So... you trust me with him now, do you?”

“I have seen enough of your actions this past week, and looked into your eyes to see the truth. I am no longer afraid for Shinji's safety when he is with you.”

The redhead froze in the act of reaching down to the boy at her feet. “...what would you have done if something did happen?” she asked hesitantly as she looked over her shoulder.

“They would never find your body.” The chill Asuka felt from the immediate answer was lessened somewhat by the smile on Rei's face, which quickly disappeared as she placed Pen-Pen on the ground and walked up the hallway to her room.

There was silence in the kitchen, as both redheads stared after the girl. After a moment Asuka looked down at the avian and said, “This goes for you too, bird-brain. Not a word to Misato.”

To Asuka's surprise, Pen-Pen was not taken aback at the menacing words. Instead, he moved across the kitchen to stop directly in front of Asuka. He pointed one flipper at Shinji, then the other at Asuka. Bringing the second flipper up, he drew it slowly and deliberately across his throat before pointing at the stunned girl once more. “Wark,” he ominously squawked before waddling into his fridge and shutting the door perhaps a little harder than necessary.

The second the fridge closed, Asuka began softly laughing, and even her sore throat couldn't stop her. After everything that had just happened, an overly-protective penguin threatening her was just what she needed to go to bed in a good mood.

* * *

If there was one thing that would never change in Asuka's life, it was that she loathed being rudely awoken before the sun had even begun to think about peeking over the horizon. The tossing and turning of her roommate had been the culprit, and she almost had to stifle a surprised shriek when her eyes opened to reveal Shinji's face a few centimetres away from hers. The curses died in her throat as she realised the source of the interruption.

Asuka remained awake for a while, simply staring at the sleeping boy next to her and wondering when the troubled look he used to have while sleeping had seemingly increased in intensity. Was it when he had been moved into her room, or was it simply because of the previous night? Whatever the case, her hand automatically reached for his when Shinji began to shake in his sleep, and Asuka quickly fell asleep again with the reassuring warmth of the Third Child's hand in hers.

She would have to find some way of thanking Shinji for letting her sleep well for so many nights in a row.

That would have to come at a later date, however. Another interruption to her beauty sleep was even now standing above her with arms folded and a disapproving frown on her face.

“Do you mind telling me why one of my chairs is broken, young lady?” Misato asked.

“Wstfgl,” was Asuka's eloquent reply. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs and tried again, but not before glancing down and making sure her blanket was covering her neck. “What the hell kind of time do you call this? Couldn't it wait until it's _actually_ morning?”

“I need to have a meeting with some of the U.N. members, and the only available timeslot is in a couple of hours, so I need to get ready now. Now stop changing the subject and explain what happened.”

Asuka's face fell. She had been hoping for more time to come up with a reasonable explanation, but the rude awakening after not enough time asleep had short-circuited her lying sub-routine.

“Well, I-” she managed before a soft voice intruded.

“It was my fault,” Rei lied smoothly from the hallway. Misato turned around in surprise, and managed to miss the look of shock on Asuka's face. “I was tired, and tripped over Pen-Pen. Some cups were also broken in my fall.” She bowed before the stunned woman. “I am sorry, Misato. I shall pay for replacements.”

“...Oh,” Misato lamely replied. She shook herself and rallied. “Are you and Pen-Pen okay?”

“I am uninjured, and Pen-Pen was more upset with me than hurt.”

“Well... that's alright I suppose.” Misato scratched her head. Something didn't add up here, but she didn't have the luxury of time to examine closer. “Why are you up so early anyway?”

“You were not very quiet, and I am a light sleeper.”

“...Oh,” Misato said again. “Er, sorry.” She began to walk out of Asuka's bedroom and down the hallway, but stopped near the kitchen. “Oh yes. We need to get you two back to training before the next Revenant appears. Rei, would you be willing to participate in an activation test?”

“How soon?”

“If you agree, we'll start preparations immediately, and I'll get Section Two to pick you three up when we're nearly ready. We may as well do a sync test with Asuka while we're at it.”

Rei glanced into the room at Asuka, who looked back and nodded. “Yes, I will,” she said to Misato.

Their guardian smiled. “As I said to Asuka, I will never force anyone into an Eva against their will, so thank you. Now go back to sleep, you two. Oh, and I won't be back for dinner either, so don't make anything for me tonight.”

With a wave, Misato went back into her room to get changed.

“Huh...” Asuka said, sitting up as soon as she heard the door close. “You actually covered for me, First. I didn't even know you were capable of lying like that.”

Rei smiled. After spending nearly a week living with the girl, Asuka no longer found it surprising to see Rei actually express emotions. “I believe Misato has known you long enough to be able to sense deceit. Conversely, she is not as familiar with me.”

“Thank god for that, I had nothing.”

The First Child nodded, and was about to turn and leave, when she noticed something odd. “Have you always slept that close to my brother?”

Asuka looked down. Shinji's face had been close to hers when she woke up in the middle of the night, but at the time she had merely thought he had twisted himself closer. Now with the light from the hallway, she could see that their futons were almost touching each other. Asuka blushed slightly as she explained what had happened. “I wish I knew why he fears me so much, but still gets comforted by me whenever his demons attack,” she added.

The two girls thought for a moment before Rei answered, “It is only a theory, but I believe that while Shinji's mind equates you with fear, his heart does not.” Before Asuka could even begin to stammer, Rei turned out the hallway light before returning to her bedroom.

The redhead stared into the pitch blackness surrounding her. A faint whisper eventually broke the silence.

“His... heart...”

* * *

When morning finally dawned, Shinji had migrated back towards his 'normal' sleeping position, to Asuka's slight disappointment. Going back to sleep with the boy's face so close to hers had suffused her cheeks with colour at the thought that he was so close that a minor shift of her neck would bring his mouth in range for...

In the dim light filtering through the curtains, Asuka kicked _that_ thought out of her head as she sat up and tried to ignore the warmth in her face. It would take more than close proximity to make Asuka Langley-Soryu suddenly kiss Shinji Ikari.

_**'Like being 'bored'?'** _

Asuka frowned. ' _ Even if I had a reason to, I wouldn't kiss him. Not until he was lucid.' _

_**'But who would know?'** _

_ 'I would!'  _ Asuka screamed internally. It was too early to have another argument with herself, so she threw the covers of her futon back and stood up to open the curtains. The athletic  teenager stretched the kinks out of her body in the light of a new day.

When her body was finally feeling limber, Asuka moved over to her dresser. The new mirror was not quite the same size as the one she had broken in her despair-driven frenzy, but enough adhesive had solved that minor problem. She leaned forward and critically examined her neck, pulling her hair out of the way for a better look. To her quiet surprise, all evidence of the previous night had vanished, and Asuka smiled in relief.

At the end of her examination, Asuka let her hair go, watching in the mirror as it cascaded downward like a brilliant orange waterfall. Her hair was now past the midpoint of her back, but still not quite long enough to emulate her mother's style. The problem with her plan now was that LCL made hair washing an arduous chore, and she was grudgingly considering getting it trimmed while she was still needed as a pilot.

Asuka smiled as she remembered a time back when she was a little girl, when she had tried to hide behind her mother's hair while playing a game. She couldn't remember who she had been hiding from, though. A friend? A relative?

A movement in the corner of the mirror caught her eye. “Morning, Rei,” she called over her shoulder.

“Good morning, Asuka,” Rei greeted from the doorway, already dressed for the day. “Did you sleep well?”

“Apart from being interrupted, yeah. The marks on my neck are gone too.”

“That is good to hear. Will you be making anything for breakfast?”

Asuka turned away from the mirror and shook her head. “Eh, heavy meals and Eva piloting don't mix well, so we should just have something light for now. We can make up for it by having a big lunch after we're done.”

“A wise decision,” Rei replied, before heading to the bathroom. Asuka returned to the mirror and ran a brush through her hair, removing the knots that had built up during the night.

When the call from NERV came, Rei and Asuka -towing Shinji as usual- headed outside to find the Section Two agents already waiting for them. They did not speak, instead gesturing for the girls to proceed. The entire trip was made in silence, and Asuka wondered if the agents were ordered not to talk or whether they simply had nothing worth saying.

“Good to see you, kids,” Misato said when they reported to her, looking up from what she had been discussing with Ritsuko in her office.

Asuka nodded in greeting. “So what's happening first? My sync test or Rei's activation?”

“We'll do your test first, Asuka,” Ritsuko answered. “No offence, Rei, but I want to have her on standby in case of any problem with your activation.”

“No offence was taken, Doctor Akagi. Unit-00 has... rarely responded kindly to the tests.” Rei looked sidelong at her fellow pilot. “I trust Asuka to subdue my Evangelion if something happens.”

“Nice to hear that,” Misato said with a smile. “Hopefully it won't come to that, but after what happened with Unit-01 I'd rather not take any chances with our two more... unruly Evas.”

“That's what you get for sticking with old hardware,” Asuka said, a weak grin on her face.

  
With a groan and a mock glare, Misato dismissed the bad joke with a wave and said, “I don't think Rei would appreciate a simple hardware fault as a reason for getting hurt. Now get out of here and into your plugsuits!”

After they left, Misato asked, “How are we looking with Unit-00 anyway? Do you think there'll be any problems?”

“I surehope not. Giant rampaging robots are expensive to clean up after,” Ritsuko replied. “I'm just wondering if it will accept Rei as she is now.”

“What about the soul inside it? Asuka said that her mother isn't in there anymore, but is the same true of the other two Evas?”

“We'll soon find out about Unit-00, but until Shinji recovers we can only speculate on Yui's whereabouts.”

“True. Oh, speaking of which, did you ever get around to finishing up with Shinji's scans inside Unit-01?”

For a moment the sudden change of topic confused Ritsuko, until she ran the last sentence through her head again. “Oh. Yes. Right. Er...” She rubbed the back of her head. “I plugged the data into the MAGI, but then the Revenant attacked. We were so busy picking up the pieces after that, I kind of forgot about it.”

“What kind of scientist are you, to forget to check up on your own research?”

Ritsuko sighed and flopped back into her chair. “A tired one. Ask me again after today's tests, that will give me time to make sense of the results.”

The two commanders returned to work. The amount of preparation they had to deal with meant it took fifteen minutes to realise something. “Crap,” Misato swore. “They forgot to leave Shinji with me.”

* * *

“Crap, we forgot to leave Shinji with Misato,” Asuka muttered as the trio stopped in the hallway leading towards the changing rooms.

“Would you like me to take him with me when I go to the bridge?” suggested Rei.

“Well there's no point heading back now,” Asuka sighed. “Do it when when we split up at the Eva cages.”

When they reached the changing rooms, the two girls started putting on their plugsuits, while Shinji sat on the end of a bench, facing the wall.

“What did you mean last night, when you said you had been strangled before?” Rei asked, breaking the silence.

On the other side of the lockers, the question froze Asuka in place with one leg in her plugsuit. Terrible memories resurfaced, as they often did.

_**'Please, Asuka. Die with me.'** _

_**'If that's what you want, I'll die with you, mama. Just don't stop being my mama! Mama! Mama!'** _

_**'Mama? Who are you?'** _

But now they were held off by a much more important one, and Asuka drew strength from it.

_**'You are Asuka Langley Soryu. My daughter. Not even Third Impact can change that. And there's something else that will never change. I am so proud of you, Asuka, and I will always love you.'** _

After waiting for Asuka's reply and getting nothing, Rei said, “If you do not wish to speak of it, I will-”

“When I was young, my mother, or... the _thing_ that looked like her after the Contact Experiment, tried to kill me,” Asuka woodenly replied as she resumed dressing. “I can't remember how I managed to break free. Not long after that was when she hung herself next to that... _doll_.” She spat the last word like a curse.

“I-I am so-”

“Don't. Say it,” Asuka slowly and exasperatedly said before the other girl could finish. Though Rei couldn't see it, Asuka gestured in the direction of Shinji while she continued. “It's easy to see the similarities between you and him sometimes. You both apologise for things that you shouldn't.”

Rei couldn't stop the words coming if she tried. “I'm sorry.”

“Oh my god! You're _exactly_ like him!” Asuka palmed her face in frustration, and rubbed two fingers against her forehead. The dredged up memories were now struggling for dominance, and she felt something akin to a headache approaching. Rather than risk upsetting her further, Rei chose to return her attention to her plugsuit.

* * *

“I know you do not need luck for something like this,” Rei said as Asuka walked up the gantry towards her entry plug. Her own Eva was in transit to the testing cage. “But...”

“Yeah.” Asuka nodded, staring into the green eyes of her Evangelion. “I get what you're trying to say, and the sentiment is appreciated. Just make sure that your Eva doesn't go nuts and we'll be fine. I'd rather not have to take down another one.” She turned around. “Although I-... Wait, where's Shinji?”

The two girls frantically looked around, but the brown-haired boy was nowhere to be seen in Unit-02's holding pen.

“Damnit, did he wander off somewhere? He could be anywhere in NERV now, the idiot!” Asuka punched the railing in anger.

Rei bristled slightly at the insult to her brother. “Calm down. I will retrace our steps and attempt to locate him. You should get into your Eva and prepare for your test.”

“Like hell I will!” Asuka retorted. “You think I'll be able to concentrate with him missing like this?”

An amplified voice filled the cage. _“Asuka, we're ready to begin. What's the hold-up?”_

The two pilots looked towards the back wall of the cage, where Misato and Ritsuko could be seen in the control room hanging over Unit-02.

“Shinji's disappeared and we don't know where he might have gone,” Asuka called out.

Despite it not being picked up by the P.A. system, Asuka could almost hear the curse uttered by Misato. The woman turned away and shouted an order at a subordinate. A minute later Ritsuko said, _“The MAGI have found him, he's in Unit-01's cage. Get over there, he shouldn't be allowed to get into his Eva in the state he's in!”_

Asuka took off running the second Ritsuko mentioned the purple Evangelion's cage as Shinji's location, Rei close on her heels.

“I knew I shouldn't have let go of him,” Asuka muttered as she ran through the blast door sitting between Cage Two and Three. She skidded to a halt on the catwalk after passing the doorway.

Fortunately for everybody, Shinji was nowhere near the entry plug. Instead he was standing on the catwalk in front of Unit-01, staring up into its face. As the girls drew closer, they could hear him mumbling, “...my father's work?” before looking up at the empty control room overhead.

It only took Rei a second to figure out what Shinji was remembering. “It is the day he first came to NERV and met his-.”

“Father...” Shinji gasped, unintentionally finishing Rei's sentence before looking away.

Misato's voice came through over the P.A. system once more. “ _Did you find him?”_

“Yeah, it's fine. Just a memory,” Asuka replied. To Rei, she said, “Why does it have to be another bad one? Aren't there any good memories in that head of his?”

Rei declined to comment, and Asuka grimly realised the answer to that question quickly.

In front of them, Shinji stood silent for a short time while the conversation in his own head went on without him. Eventually, he spoke again. “Why did... you send for me?... So, you're asking me to take this thing and go out there and fight?”

Asuka struggled to keep calm as the boy spoke. Already she could hear the pain in Shinji's voice as he argued with his mind's image of Gendo Ikari.

_ 'The first time Shinji sees his father in years, and it's to be told that he's just a tool,'  _ Asuka thought, frowning as the one-sided conversation continued. The rubber of her plugsuit squeaked as her fists clenched. When Shinji's face fell at whatever Gendo had said to dismiss him, she growled, “If the bastard ever leaves Instrumentality, I don't care what he is to you and Shinji or what  _ anybody _ says, I'm  kicking the  shit out of him.”

“If that day ever comes, I shall endeavour to be elsewhere,” was Rei's impassive reply. She too felt her gorge rising as she remembered the part she had unwittingly played that day. Being wheeled out on a gurney as blackmail in order to force Shinji's hand, and having her injuries become exacerbated by both the movement and the shockwave from the Angel attack knocking her off the gurney. She explained this to Asuka as the redhead wondered why Shinji had suddenly fallen backwards.

The distraction caused by her exposition earned Rei her second fall onto the catwalk as Shinji barrelled into her, narrowly missing Asuka. In a remarkable coincidence, she landed precisely where Shinji knelt down, and was once more held gently in his arms. Apart from the aches of landing on the metal flooring, she was uninjured this time, and so could look into the boy's eyes.

The first time she had been in this situation, Rei had only briefly been able to see Shinji before she was placed back on the gurney and wheeled away, but it had been enough time to see his concern. Now that she had the opportunity -and both eyes- to stare, she did so.

Concern _poured_ off of Shinji as he remembered the past. Or perhaps that was merely his body heat slowly leeching through Rei's plugsuit. Whatever the case, Rei once more felt warmth and safety emanating from the boy. The feeling that he would do everything in his power to protect her despite knowing her for only a few seconds.

Asuka knelt down next to them. “You okay?” she asked. “You hit the ground pretty hard.”

“I am alright,” Rei replied, keeping her eyes on Shinji. “This does not even come close to the pain I have felt in the past.”

“I'll, uh... take your word for that. The memory appears to be over anyway.”

Shinji had frozen in place, a hand hovering in front of his face and his eyes glazing over once more. Rei could swear that the warmth she had felt was slowly draining away, and she gingerly removed herself from Shinji's arms and stood up with a sigh. “I shall take him to Misato now,” she said, sadness creeping in at the edge of her voice.

Asuka watched them leave, focusing on the back of Shinji's head. “What will it take,” she quietly wondered, “to bring you back to m-... us?” She didn't move back to Unit-02 until the blast door closed and cut off her view of the tortured boy, and she sadly whispered, “What more can I do...?”

* * *

“ _Can you concentrate please, Asuka?”_ came the stern request from Ritsuko. _“You're down to 42%, and I know you can do_ much _better.”_

The pilot of Unit-02 was too distracted by her thoughts to comment.

_'I've been looking after Shinji for six months, comforting him whenever his nightmares become too much. The only thing that even cracked his shell was getting into Unit-01. What am I doing wrong? The one time he interacts with me and he tries to_ kill _me while remembering Third Impact...'_

“ _Asuka?”_

“What?!” she snarled, before realising who was speaking to her. “Oh, sorry Misato.”

The  C ommander stared back at her through the comm window. With a sigh, she gently pushed a fussing Ritsuko aside and leaned closer.  _ “Okay, let's pause the test for a moment. Something's clearly on your mind, Asuka.” _

“I'm fine,” Asuka retorted shortly.

“ _Obviously not, if you're nearly dropping below 40% sync and not even caring.”_

The girl blinked in surprise. “Forty...” she repeated, then shook her head. “Alright alright, I'm thinking about Shinji.”

To Asuka's mild astonishment, her guardian did not seize that opportunity to rib her. Instead, Misato asked, _“What happened in the cage?”_

“Shinji remembered the day he first saw Unit-01... and his father. Rei told me what she could of what happened.”

“ _I see. Did she also tell you of how casually his father almost threw him away again?”_

“She didn't need to. Shinji's body language was enough to make me vow to beat that asshole father of his into paste if he returned.”

“ _Hah!”_ came the humourless laugh from Ritsuko, standing slightly off-screen. _“Sorry, but you'll have to get in line. Practically everyone at NERV, if not the whole world, is going to want a piece of him.”_

Misato nodded in agreement with her Sub-Commander. _“Look, Asuka. I know you're doing your best at looking after Shinji,”_ she reassured the girl. _“I believe that placing him in your care will work_ _ **much**_ _better than the best psychologist in the world. Don't be discouraged by what looks like failure. Just by being with him and comforting him, you are doing your job. Never forget that.”_

Asuka's spirits lifted slightly, yet she still found herself asking, “But why do I constantly feel like I could be doing more for him?”

Misato grinned. _“I won't repeat what I said to you a long time ago in the examination room.”_

The girl flushed slightly, which was fortunately covered up by the liquid surrounding her. “Y-yeah, I remember.”

“ _Good. Feel better enough to try the test again?”_ Misato asked hopefully.

In response, Asuka leaned forward and grasped the reins of Unit-02 tightly. “Yeah, thanks Misato.”

“ _Thank me by getting to... let's say 55%.”_

Unfortunately, Asuka only made it to 51% before Ritsuko concluded the test. Misato waved it off, but the failure would eat away at the Second Child for the rest of the day.

* * *

The fresh blue paint on the giant bio-mechanical creation shone in the harsh lights of the testing chamber. Just as Asuka did with Unit-02, Rei stared into the cyclopean red eye of her Evangelion, alone on the catwalk.

“Will you accept me as I am now?” she softly whispered. “Have I changed too much?” Predictably, the behemoth remained silent. Her head drooped and she closed her eyes. “I suppose we shall soon find out,” she said, a small smile gracing her lips.

Rei climbed into the entry plug and settled into the chair as the cylindrical cockpit slid into place inside Unit-00. The moment it locked into place, a comm window opened to her left.

“ _Ready to start, Rei?”_ Misato asked.

“Affirmative, Commander.”

“ _Good. Just remember that we're not expecting miracles. We'll be happy if you can sync, but if not we will make do. Asuka, are you ready?”_

“ _In position,”_ replied Asuka in a subdued tone. Rei glanced at the new comm window, and saw that her fellow pilot was looking somewhat downcast. She was about to switch to a private channel and talk to Asuka, when the order came through. It would just have to wait until later.

“ _Begin activation test!”_ Misato's call came, and the bridge crew leapt to action.

“ _Connecting main power.”_

_  
“All circuits transmitting.”_

_  
“Connecting secondary contact.”_

_  
“A10-nerve connection normal.”_

Rei felt the familiar sensation as her A-10 connectors came to life for the first time in over half a year.

_  
“Configure language interface for Japanese.”_

_  
“All preliminary contacts established, performance nominal.”_

_  
_ The voices of the bridge crew faded away as Rei closed her eyes and prepared for the mental strain she always had to go through. Whereas the other two pilots only had to open their hearts to their Evangelions, Rei had to  _battle_ with the soul inside hers in order to bend the recalcitrant machine to her will.

She didn't always win. Not long before the arrival of the Third Angel, Unit-00 had seemingly attempted to kill her by explosively ejecting the entry plug in a confined space.

As she felt herself sink 'downwards' towards the Evangelion's core and the soul it contained, Rei felt a sense of wrongness. There was something different about Unit-00. She opened her eyes, and saw only blackness.

Before she could begin to wonder at the absence of the soul, a hand stretched out of the darkness and tapped her on the shoulder. Rei whirled around to see...

Herself.

“It's good to see you again, my child,” the apparition said.

“...Lilith?” Rei wondered, wide-eyed.

“Almost. Just a fragment of her. Have a seat.” The other girl waved her hand, and a couple of simple chairs appeared between them.

“What are you doing here?” Rei asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

Pausing in the act of sitting down, the apparition said, “I'm attempting to put you at ease. Sit down, please.”

With a frown, Rei took the other seat. “No, I mean what are you doing inside Unit-00?”

“I am now the soul inside Unit-00. The original being that inhabited this beast has returned to where it belongs,” the other girl explained. “Have you not noticed that you hold memories of all three of your incarnations?”

The frown deepened. “I do, but I admit that I had not thought much of it, believing that y-... Lilith had simply gifted those memories to me.”

“In a sense, that's correct. It would be more true to say that their _lives_ were gifted to you. Everything that they once were is now within you.”

Rei raised a clenched hand to her chest. “I see...” She looked up. “But what does that make me?”

The fragment of Lilith smiled. “You are Rei Ayanami,” she said simply. “No more, no less.” She leaned forward. “Now then, I suppose I should let you go. I knew you would come here attempting to subdue the previous occupant, and took that moment to meet you face to face.”

“Wait!” Rei exclaimed. “You, or rather Lilith, fragmented your soul in order to power Unit-00. Did you do the same for the other two Evangelions?”

“Only for yours. I was able to convince Adam to give a piece of his soul to Unit-02. Just enough to replace Asuka's mother. Since your fellow pilot doesn't have the... connection you and I share, she would likely not have met him like this.”

“No, I remember her saying that Unit-02 felt cold and empty.”

“Ah, just like him to be rude. It was difficult enough getting him to agree, I had to appeal to his own sense of fair play.” The apparition smiled again. “After all, he was the one who rescued Asuka, claiming that he didn't want to win by default with the loss of both the Second and Third Children.”

The smile faded, and the fragment of Lilith sighed. “As for Unit-01... I'm afraid I don't know who or what is in there. My initial attempt to insert a fragment was repelled.”

Rei sharply inhaled. “It was blocked? By... Yui Ikari?”

“It is only a guess, based on the fact that I was not able to find her in Instrumentality. I did not wish to force my way in and risk damage or injury to the occupant or to the Evangelion, and so I left Unit-01 alone.”

“ _Bi-directional circuits are open. Synchronisation ratio at 42%.”_

Both girls looked up as the voices of the bridge crew were heard. “You should go. They may suspect a problem if you do not respond soon. Since I will likely not see you again, I will take this opportunity to wish you good luck in the battle against Adam's Revenants.”

“Thank you,” Rei said as she stood up and bowed. “With your help, our chances of succeeding are much greater.” Without a second glance backwards, she drifted away from the still-seated soul.

And opened her eyes.

“ _Harmonics normal, no problems detected.”_

“ _Evangelion Unit-00 has activated.”_

* * *

After their tests, the two pilots quickly showered and changed before returning to the Commander's office. Ritsuko wisely decided to make herself absent as Misato debriefed Rei after the successful activation test. She could sense that her presence would not be welcome yet, going by the sullen looks thrown her way whenever she spoke.

“Well done, Rei,” Misato said. “Not only did you manage to activate Unit-00 with no problems, you also achieved possibly your best sync ratio ever.”

“Thank you, Commander,” replied Rei.

“Hmph, looks like you didn't need me after all,” Asuka gloomily said, one elbow resting on Misato's desk with her chin in her hand, and her other hand clutching Shinji's. She was currently staring at nothing, and so missed the glance between Misato and Rei at her behaviour.

“...Anyway, so we now have two fully functional Evangelions and two great pilots to work with,” Misato continued. “Although I'm not sure whether to trust the fact that one of them has a soul fragment belonging to our enemy.”

“Commander, if you do not know whether to trust Unit-02, then trust me... and Lilith,” Rei answered reassuringly. “From what her fragment told me, Adam will not stoop to such treachery, as he wishes for a fair test of our might against his.”

“We went through that crap already though!” Asuka exclaimed. “Or was all of last year pointless?”

“It could be said that humanity only failed due to our own treachery, though,” Misato mused. “I mean, we did have both SEELE and Shinji's father working to bring about our demise.”

Only Asuka noticed the barest hint of a twitch in Shinji's face at the mention of the elder Ikari. She squeezed his hand tighter and slipped back into her native tongue as she muttered, “ _Aasbande_...” hatefully under her breath.

“I don't know what you just said, Asuka, but I agree with whatever it was. Anyway, we need to get you two into some combat training sims soon. It's anyone's guess when the next Revenant will attack, and I want you two working well together.”

Asuka merely mumbled noncommittally, while Rei replied, “I will do my best to keep up with Asuka.”

“Good. Now-”

Asuka abruptly stood up with a clatter as her chair fell over, pulling Shinji out of his own seat.

“What's wrong, Asuka?” Misato queried, crooking an eyebrow. “I know you're unhappy about Shinji's progress, but today you've been acting like he's dropped back into a coma.”

“Just leave me alone, I'm _fine!_ ”Asuka almost yelled, before stomping out of the office with Shinji in tow, throwing a glare at Misato's secretary on her way as if the woman had attempted to stop her exit.

“Asu-... damnit. I really hate this job sometimes,” Misato complained as she slumped back into her chair after her failed attempt to call the angry girl back. “Everything's fine, just shut the door please,” she said to her secretary, who had poked her head into the room to see if anything was wrong.

“Will she be alright?” asked Rei when the secretary departed.

“I don't know, Rei. Asuka seems to think that it's her fault for Shinji not recovering.”

“But if it were not for her, my brother might still be catatonic,” Rei said uncertainly.

“You know that, I know that, and Asuka knows that.” Misato sat up and leaned forward on the desk. “Do you know if something happened to her? She seemed fine yesterday.”

Rei hesitated, eyes darting to the door through which Asuka had left, and Misato noticed. “Please, tell me. I might be able to help.”

_ 'Misato can't know about this.'  _ The conversation from the night before ran through Rei's mind.  _ 'Because she'll be forced to act.' _ She took a deep breath, looked Misato in the eyes, and chose to honour Asuka's wishes. “It was nothing major. Shinji remembered something, and it upset Asuka.”

“Do you know what it was?”

Rei shook her head. “I do not,” she said shortly. “Is there anything else you wish to speak to me about, Commander?”

Misato blinked at the sudden change of subject, but decided to go along with it. “No, nothing else Rei. Dismissed,” she said with a sigh.

“Then I shall go and locate Asuka, and see if there is something I can do to improve her mood.”

“Careful. You're close to her sync ratio. She might bite your head off.”

Rei nodded and saluted before leaving the office. As soon as she had left the area, Misato told her secretary to request Ritsuko's presence in her office.

* * *

It took Rei almost half an hour to locate Asuka. Enquiries with passing NERV staff eventually directed her towards a seldom-used stairwell. From the sound of mumbled German she could hear from the other side of the door, Rei knew she had found the right place. She pushed the door open as quietly as she could and stepped through.

Asuka and Shinji were sitting underneath the staircase, apparently hiding away from any passersby. While she was not facing the door, Asuka somehow knew when Rei was close, as she sarcastically said, “Took you long enough,” when the other girl got close. “Let me guess, you're going to ask if I'm okay.”

Rei said nothing, and instead sat down on the dusty floor next to Asuka.

“Yeah, it's pretty damn obvious I suppose,” Asuka continued, as if the question had been asked anyway. “After all, nobody storms out of their superior's office without a good reason.”

“Misato is concerned for you,” Rei finally said.

Asuka hugged her knees to her chest. “I'm aware of that, First. And I just went ahead and let her down despite the pep talk she gave me.”

“She does not care about your sync ratio. It is just a number.”

“Yeah, a number that says how well I'm doing.”

“Our results during tests have rarely been indicative of our performance in an actual combat situation.”

Asuka knew how true that statement was, but still rolled her eyes and said, “I  _ know. _ Doesn't make it any easier for me.”

“You are blaming yourself for Shinji's lack of progress.”

Asuka began to retort, but her mouth snapped shut before the first syllable could escape. “Damnit,” she whispered angrily. “Why did you have to bring _that_ up?”

  
“He is my brother, and you are his caretaker. I wish to assist you in any way I can.”

“Assist? _Assist?!_ ” Asuka's voice rose and she jumped to her feet. “I'm the best person to rid him of his nightmares, for whatever reason! What the hell can _you_ do?!”

Rei could not find an answer to the harsh question.

“That's what I thought.” Asuka dropped heavily back onto the hard ground before laying her head on her knees and resuming her mumbling in German.

_ 'She is right, what  _ can _ I do to help?'  _ Rei thought.  _ 'I do not have any knowledge that would help in this situation.'  _ She glanced sidelong at Asuka, who now had her eyes closed.  _ 'But there must be something I can do to at least comfort and reassure her.' _

A flash of inspiration struck.  _ 'Comfort. Hikari hugged me as a means of comfort and support.' _ Rei turned her head to look fully at Asuka, who was in her own world.  _ 'But I do not believe Asuka would accept a hug from me. Misato is too far away, as are our friends. That only leaves...' _

“Please stand.”

“Huh?” Asuka's head shot up, almost impacting on the wall of the stairwell. She saw Rei pull Shinji to his feet and sneered, “What, you want to take us somewhere? Think that'll make me feel better?”

“No. Please stand up,” Rei repeated.

With an exaggerated sigh, Asuka stood up. “Fine. I'm up. Now what?”

“Please close your eyes.”

“Why, so you can try to slap some sense into me?” Asuka folded her arms and shifted her weight to her back foot.

“You will not be harmed. Please close your eyes.”

If someone had been at the top of the stairwell, they would have heard the annoyed groan echoing upwards. Asuka was glad she chose such a remote location. “Fine,” she said, following the instruction. “ _Now_ what?”

There was no response for a moment, but Asuka could hear quiet footsteps and clothing rustle slightly. “Well?”

“Open your arms and take two steps forward.”

“What the hell are you planning, Wondergirl?” Her arms remained folded as Asuka remained where she was.

“You will find out quickly.”

“I'm not doing another thing until you tell me what the hell you're doing.”

“It would spoil the surprise if I simply told you. If you do as I ask and do not feel better in five minutes, you may hit me without repercussion. Is that a satisfactory agreement?”

For a moment, Asuka considered opening her eyes and punching the girl anyway, but she managed to simmer down and say, “This had better damn well be worth it.” Her tone indicated she held no hope in whatever Rei's solution was.

Asuka walked forward, sarcastically exaggerating each step, and her arms brushed against fabric. Before she could look at what she was walking into, Rei said, “Keep your eyes closed until I say otherwise.” Asuka grit her teeth in frustration, but didn't peek.

She almost did open her eyes when she felt two cold hands grip her wrists and  manoeuvre her arms into position on... somebody's back? She could certainly feel the spinal column poking slightly into her wrist. When one of the hands detached and moved to her own back, Asuka felt herself being pushed forward into a very-definitely male chest. The other hand left her wrist at the same time as the one on her back, and she quickly felt two arms encircle her.

“W-what are you doing?!” Asuka exclaimed as she felt her cheeks begin to heat up.

“You may look now.”

Asuka cautiously opened her eyes, looked up slightly and saw...

Two sad and empty but still-beautiful cobalt orbs staring directly at her.

“Shinji...” Asuka whispered as she felt the heat of his body begin to merge with her own, and drive away the anger and despair she had felt all day.

“From my observations I believe it would be appropriate, in this situation, to place your head on his shoulder,” came the quiet but sure voice of Rei from behind her.

Asuka was so focused on Shinji that she simply complied with Rei's suggestion, nestling her head into the crook of his neck and tightening her hold on him as she did so. She felt the boy's arms tighten in return, and decided that she didn't care if that had been Rei's doing or Shinji unconsciously reacting. Instead she simply let the boy's warmth infuse her body.

_'Either Shinji's stopped slouching or he had a growth spurt when I wasn't looking. If he gets any taller I really will have to stand on my tip-toes to be at eye level,'_ Asuka mused.

Rei stood to one side and watched the interaction. She noticed Asuka close her eyes again and burrow her head deeper into Shinji's neck. After a minute, she smiled and silently slipped out the door. While it was quiet in this part of NERV, there were still a few personnel that attempted to enter the stairwell. These people were stopped by a serious-looking teenager who politely but firmly asked them to find an alternate route, and subtly threatened them with the attention of the Supreme Commander of NERV if they still tried to pass her.

Nobody decided to risk Commander Katsuragi's anger.

Fifteen minutes passed, until the door behind Rei was pushed open as Asuka strode through. Without turning to face the redhead, Rei asked, “Do you feel better now?”

She didn't need to turn around to sense the grin on Asuka's face.


	18. Chapter 18

Once they got over the confusion of where they had found themselves in NERV, the teenagers made it to the cafeteria just in time for the end of the lunch rush. After such a small breakfast that morning, even Rei decided to have a bigger meal than usual.

They ate in silence, with half an ear on the conversations around them. Occasionally someone would pass their table with a second glance, but there were no comments about the pilots.

“There's no power on this planet that will make me put Shinji out of my mind,” Asuka finally said after the plates had been taken away. “Regardless of what anyone says, I'm at least partially responsible for his trauma.  _ I _ insulted and belittled him.  _ I  _ hurt him. _ I _ caused him so much pain he snapped and tried to kill what he thought was me. But unlike the other factors, I can actually do something. I  _ will _ do something.”

She looked up at Rei, who was watching her intently. “But... I can't let my worry get in the way of my job again. I'm an Eva pilot, a _soldier._ My duty is to protect those who can't defend themselves. That includes Shinji. If I'm too busy thinking about him, my performance will suffer and I could end up letting everyone down. _Including Shinji_. So... thanks Wondergirl. Thanks for reminding me.”

Rei nodded. “I am simply glad your mood has improved. By focusing on piloting, you are still helping Shinji. I do not wish to think of what Misato and I would have to do if something bad happened to you, Asuka.”

“Please,” muttered Asuka. “Don't make me imagine that either. Ah crap,” she added, as a thought occurred. “I'm gonna have to apologise to Misato too.”

As if it had been waiting for the cue, Asuka's phone chose that moment to ring. She took it out of her pocket and answered it.

“ _Asuka, did Rei find you yet?”_

“Oh, hey Misato. Yeah, she did.” Asuka pointedly looked away from Rei.

“ _Is she still in one piece?”_

“Of course she is! Wondergirl... ah... helped me a bit and now we're eating lunch.”

Surprise was evident in Misato's voice, even through the phone's tiny speaker.  _“That's good, I'd hate to have you put in the brig for attacking a fellow pilot.”_

Asuka shivered, and silently gave thanks that Misato still had no idea about the previous night. “Yeah. And... um... sorry about storming out earlier.”

“ _Speaking as your commander, I had better not see that kind of behaviour from you again, Pilot Soryu. But as your guardian, don't worry about it, I'm just glad you're back to normal. Now, can you three please come back to my office?”_

“Uh, sure. What's the problem?” Asuka hesitantly asked.

“ _There's no problem, I'd rather just speak to you in person.”_

  
Asuka gave her assurance that they would be there soon, and hung up.

“Would you like to know a good reason to do your best, Asuka?” Rei asked as they left the cafeteria.

The redhead raised an eyebrow. “Sure, why not. Lay it on me.”

Rei stopped, bringing the other two teens to a halt as well. She glanced between Asuka and Shinji and said, “If you die, you will not be able to hug Shinji anymore.”

Asuka suddenly felt like the heat coming off her face should be scorching the walls. “H-hey! You  _made_ me hug him!”

“I simply got you started. You are the one who kept it going,” Rei replied with a smile, before turning and leaving a sputtering Asuka behind her.

“Damnit, First! You're lucky I have Misato threatening me with imprisonment if I hit you!”

* * *

“Take a seat, please,” Misato said as the trio returned to her office. While Rei took a chair near the desk, Asuka immediately went for the couch and practically fell onto it, dragging Shinji to the spot next to her. Misato winced slightly at the abuse the nearly-new piece of furniture was already suffering.

“What's up?” asked Asuka as she sunk into the couch.

“A bit of information, and a question for the two of you. Which do you want first?”

The two girls looked at each other, and Asuka indicated that Rei should choose. “The information first, please,” she asked.

Misato picked up a piece of paper from the detritus on her desk. “Doctor Akagi finally got around to checking the data from Shinji's time in Unit-01, but at this point it's probably nothing we don't already know.”

“Well you may as well tell us anyway,” Asuka replied.

“I suppose.” Misato opened her hand and let the sheet drift back down to her desk. “The data was run through the MAGI, which checked it against other neural scans to look for anything similar. The short version is that Shinji is apparently in a waking dream state. What's strange is that even when he was attacking Asuka during the test, there were still traces of said state.”

“He did claim that I wasn't... well, me. And told me to stop using my face.”

Misato nodded grimly. “Unfortunately, we still don't know how to bring him out of it. So keep trying, Asuka. I don't care what you have to do. Hug him, kiss him, sleep-... okay you're kind of already doing that one.” She tried to hide her grin at Asuka's increasingly reddening face. “Whatever it takes. I want my boy back.” Misato lightly brought her fist down on the desk as she finished speaking.

“Y-yeah, fine. What's the other thing?” Asuka hurriedly tried to change the subject.

Their guardian's face turned serious and Misato didn't answer for a moment, wanting to make sure it sounded right in her head first. Finally, she looked between Asuka and Rei and said, “I've been asking around recently, trying to find any legal issues that would prevent this. All I need now is your consent and I can get things started.”

“I do not understand,” Rei replied unsurely. “What do you require us to consent to?”

Misato took a deep breath. “Adoption,” she said.

Asuka and Rei's eyes both widened in surprise. “Y-you want to _adopt us_?” Asuka questioned incredulously.

“You are our guardian,” Rei added. “We are already in your care, is adoption really necessary?”

“It's not _completely_ for the benefit of you three,” Misato looked down and away from the teenagers. “It's also for... myself...” she quietly said, before swivelling in her chair to face the wall behind her.

The two girls looked at each other, both confused and wondering about Misato's reason. When Asuka's gaze drifted back to the woman, she noticed a picture frame perched on the edge of the desk. Quietly, she got up from the couch and walked over to see who it was a photo of. Asuka picked up the frame and turned it around, letting out a quiet gasp as her heart sank, when she realised the person's identity.

Ryoji Kaji.

Asuka was always a quick thinker, and she jumped to the right conclusion instantly. “You wanted to start a family with Kaji, didn't you.”

It was not a question.

“...Yeah.”

Even Rei was able to pick up on the sadness contained in that one syllable, and she said, “Since he is... gone, you cannot achieve that dream anymore, and wish us to be the family you can no longer have naturally.”

Asuka turned an impressed glance on her fellow pilot. However, before she could compliment Rei on her logic Misato answered both of them. “I'll never find someone like him again. And now my job keeps me too busy, and makes me too important, to even consider a romantic relationship.”

She turned around, and neither girl was surprised to see tears slowly streaming down their guardian's face. “But that wouldn't have bothered Kaji. If anything he would be working just as hard as me,” she continued with a sad smile. “There's another reason too. When I saw him in Instrumentality, he made me promise to look after you and Shinji.”

Misato wiped her eyes dry with her sleeve, and said, “You don't need to give me an answer right away if you don't want to. I understand that you, Asuka, are emancipated and used to feeling independent. Rei... your upbringing wasn't exactly normal, but I'm proud of the steps you've made ever since moving in with us. If you consent, I can arrange things so that records will show your 'parents' as dying just prior to Third Impact. There will be no need to reveal your true origin to anybody.”

Asuka sank thoughtfully back onto the couch. It was true that she had been forced to become self-reliant as a result of her mother's death and her father's utter lack of care. Just after her tenth birthday, she had asked what could be done to officially separate from her absent father, and NERV-Berlin had quickly arranged an emancipation for their pilot. While both Kaji and Misato had had official guardianship over Asuka, they had never enforced it to a point where she felt her independence threatened.

“I guess I'd be... okay with being adopted,” she slowly said after a few minutes thought. “It doesn't seem like anything would _really_ change between us except our official relationship anyway. If this is really what you want, then I'll give my consent.”

“I cannot think of a reason to decline,” said Rei. “Despite the circumstances behind my existence, despite knowing exactly what I... was, you have shown me more love and compassion than I have ever known. If I were to choose anyone to adopt me, it would be you, Misato. I accept as well.”

The tears came again, but this time they were tears of joy. Misato stepped out from behind her desk and moved over to Rei, enveloping her in a hug. As Rei smiled and returned the gesture, Misato's right hand snaked out and yanked Asuka off the couch and into the embrace as well.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” the tearful woman said. “This means so much to me.”

Asuka made only a half-hearted effort to escape Misato's grip, but eventually gave up and said, “Alright, alright. Just stop crying before you make us join in.”

After a minute or so, Misato finally recomposed herself and sat on the edge of her desk. Asuka returned to the couch yet again, and asked, “What were these legal issues you mentioned anyway?”

Misato waved a hand in dismissal. “Good news there actually. I feared that there might be problems adopting three children at once, so I had Ritsuko do some research into adoption laws. They were fortunately relaxed after Second Impact to get children orphaned by the disaster into families quicker, and they've apparently been tweaked again after Third Impact. Shinji might still be a bit tricky though.”

“Because in his condition, he is unable to give consent,” considered Rei.

“Exactly,” Misato replied with a nod. “But NERV should be able to pull the right strings. Even so, when he eventually recovers, I'll ask him the same question. I don't want him to feel forced into this just because I wanted it and he couldn't consent at the time.”

Asuka nodded in approval at Misato's thoughtfulness, and then smirked. “...Do we have to call you 'mum'?”

“Oh god no!” Misato said, jokingly placing a hand to her chest as if in fright.

“Mother...” Rei mumbled, smiling as Misato's other hand raised as well and the woman acted as if she were having a heart attack.

When the room finally settled down, Misato looked at the clock and said, “Alright, I better let you kids go. I've still got a lot of work to do. I wish I could be home for dinner, but at this rate I will probably not get home until close to midnight.”

Asuka whistled through her teeth. “Damn, this is a long day for you.”

“Comes with being the big boss of a paramilitary organisation,” Misato replied with a helpless shrug. “Rei, don't forget that school starts tomorrow, so I hope to see you in bed when I get home. Asuka, yes I know you're not going to school, but that doesn't mean you can stay up all night either.”

“Aw c'mon!”

“No arguments, young lady!”

“Geez, you're really getting into this. What's next, are you going to trade in that deathtrap you call a sports car for a family van?”

Asuka made her escape before Misato could find something to throw at her.

* * *

A malfunctioning NERV train halted their journey home, but it merely took the edge off of the good mood the two girls were enjoying as they waited for it to be fixed. When they finally left NERV, a Section Two car took them home. As soon as they entered the apartment, Rei went to her room to ensure everything was in order for the next day, while Asuka relaxed on the couch with Shinji and a magazine.

The hours slowly and lazily ticked by, until Asuka's stomach began to growl as dinner time approached.

“What do you feel like for dinner tonight, Rei?” Asuka called down the hallway.

Rei stepped out of her room and said, “I do not have any preference at the moment. I will accept whatever you make.”

“...You know, you don't always have to be so verbose. NERV doesn't pay us by the word.”

“If NERV paid us in such a manner, they would have gone bankrupt in their attempt to keep up with you.”

Asuka's eyes widened in amazement. “Damn, First. That wasn't a bad zinger.”

Rei smiled. “Thank you, Second.”

Asuka crooked an eyebrow slightly at being called that, and the eyebrow only raised further up as Rei suddenly looked past her shoulder and lost the smile. She turned around.

Shinji was rummaging through the fridge, retrieving items and placing them on the counter. Already there were herbs, eggs, an onion, and some bread rolls. But it was the final ingredient that elicited a shocked reaction from Asuka.  
  


“Hey! That's _my_ beef, damnit! I was going to use it tonight!”

As expected, there was no response from Shinji.

“It appears that he has his own plans for it,” Rei quietly mused from behind Asuka.

The redhead turned and palmed her face. “Yeah, and he's going to screw it up.”

With a look of confusion, Rei said, “I have heard it mentioned before that Shinji's meals apparently approach perfection itself. Why are you suddenly worried about his skill?”

“Because what kind of meal could he possibly make the way he is now?”

“It would obviously be whatever he is remembering.”

Asuka furrowed her brow. “What _is_ he making anyway?” She racked her brain for clues as she stepped up to look over Shinji's shoulder.

Currently, he was breaking up the rolls into little pieces and mixing them into the meat along with various herbs and seasoning, while a small bowl turned slowly in the microwave. He set a large frying pan on the stove and began to heat some butter and oil. When a 'ding' indicated the microwave was finished, Shinji took the bowl out and added the chopped and cooked onion to the mixture.

After a minute of thoroughly combining the ingredients, several patties began to take shape in the boy's hands before they were placed into the now sizzling pan.

Asuka's brain finally got back to her, holding up a card in front of her mind's eye. “Looks like he's making _Frikadellen_ ,” she said.

“ _Freeka..._ ” Rei stumbled over the foreign word.

“ _Frikadellen_ ,” Asuka said, slowly pronouncing it. “They're basically meat patties. Uh...” She looked sideways at Rei. “You... probably wouldn't like them.”

Rei nodded. “As much as I wish to sample Shinji's cooking, it is still meat, and so I must decline,” she said, and Asuka could detect a hint of regret in her voice.

When the patties were nicely browned, Shinji removed them from the heat and transferred them to the oven. After setting the timer, he sat down at the dining table, occasionally directing a nervous glance towards the living room. A few minutes passed before he got up and went to the fridge again, taking out two potatoes and a packet of diced bacon. The bacon was placed into the pan and spread about, while the potatoes were thickly sliced before joining them.

The second half of the dinner preparations made Asuka realise what was happening in Shinji's mind. “ _Frikadellen und_ _Bratkartoffeln._ Meat patties and fried potatoes,” she repeated in Japanese for Rei's benefit. “It was one of the first meals I specifically demanded that he make for me.”

Rei's regretful expression was now plain to see, and Asuka found herself feeling sorry for the girl. “You know what? When he's done, I'll make something German for you. Can't let you go without dinner on a school night, can I?” she said with a grin.

“Ah, thank you, but you do not need to-”

“Nah, it's fine,” Asuka said with a wave of her hand. “Shinji just gave me an idea for something I want to try, anyway.”

The oven bell rang as its timer ended, and Shinji quickly served the meal. Two plates were placed on the table and a third was set aside, and the boy called out, “Dinner's ready!” He sat down after a moment, but anxiously raised his head and said, “I-I hope it's alright, Asuka,” before quickly staring back down at his plate. He wouldn't look up for the rest of his meal, but his eyes occasionally darted towards the other side of the table.

Off to the side, Asuka and Rei were watching Shinji. Asuka quietly said, “I told him that it would get thrown in his face if it wasn't perfect.”

“And was it?” Rei asked.

“It was _brilliant_. But instead I told him that it was just 'satisfactory',” Asuka replied, sneering the last word bitterly. “I didn't want to believe that he could perform such culinary wizardry on his first attempt at a dish.” She shook her head and sighed. “Oh well. I'll get started on your dinner now. I can eat mine after putting yours in the oven.”

A check in the refrigerator revealed that all the ingredients for Asuka's plan were still available. Vegetables, rice, herbs, and shredded cheese were taken out and Asuka worked quickly to prepare them. A head of cabbage was placed in boiling water and the leaves removed after a few minutes of soaking. The other vegetables, the rice and the cheese were added to a saucepan and stirred.

Rei looked on in curiosity as Asuka deliberately hid what she was doing from view. After a few minutes, the German girl covered a tray and placed it in the oven, before turning back to the table and taking a seat.

“Alright, let's see how he did this time,” Asuka said as she lifted a patty to her mouth. She took a bite and chewed thoughtfully for a moment, before swallowing and letting out a sigh. “It's... not the same,” she sadly mumbled.

“What do you mean?” asked Rei. “Did he do something wrong?”

“Sort of, but I can't exactly blame him for it. There's no...” Asuka placed the patty back on the plate and looked up, waving her hands as she tried to find the right word, “ _soul_ in it, I guess you could say. No matter what Shinji cooked, it always tasted wonderful because he, uh...” Asuka trailed off and started drumming on the table in exasperation. After a moment she snapped her fingers. “Cared! He _cared_ about what he was making. This... it tastes like something I'd get in a halfway-decent restaurant by comparison. Good, certainly not something I would regret eating, but not great.”

Asuka slowly ate the rest of her meal, and got up when she was done to finish preparing Rei's when the oven bell rang again. Finally, she turned around and set a plate in front of Rei. “Vegetarian cabbage rolls,” she announced. “I learned it back in college, but never really felt like having them myself.”

Rei took an experimental bite. After consuming half of the roll, she cleared her throat and said, “My experience with food does not allow me to give an educated opinion. I have never been to a restaurant, but I believe that your evaluation of Shinji's meal is also true for this one. They are good, and I would eat them again, but they are currently not something I would make a habit of requesting every time.”

Asuka forced down the reflexive spike of anger she felt at the almost-insult to her skill, and simply nodded, saying, “Yeah, that's about what I thought you'd say.”

The rest of dinner went by silently. Shinji's memory had apparently ended sometime during the meal, and Asuka had to encourage him to finish his portion off. The third plate was carefully wrapped up and placed in the fridge for Misato. Rei offered to do the dishes, which Asuka accepted as she went to the bathroom and took a long and relaxing shower, paying particular attention to her hair in order to remove the last lingering traces of LCL before bed.

She had learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago. An LCL-stained pillow _stank_.

After some more time quietly spent in the lounge room, Rei wished Asuka a good night and headed to her room. When she heard the door slide shut, Asuka took Shinji's hand and brought him into her room. As soon as her door was closed and they were both in their futons, she grabbed his hand once more, softly rubbing her thumb over the back of it.

“Shinji... I'm sorry I always lied about your cooking,” she mumbled half to herself. “When... when you come back to us, I promise never to insult your skill again.”

Asuka fell asleep with the reassuring warmth of his hand in hers, and dreamed of the wonderful lunches a timid young boy once made for her.

* * *

To the relief of almost everybody in Class 2-A, their previous teacher had retired from education. No more would they have to suffer through the exact same lectures on pre-Second Impact culture every day. Of course, with the new teacher came one important thing that almost nobody seemed to have considered.

Actual school work.

“Damnit,” Toji moaned with his head on the table. “This is our first day back, why are we gettin' loaded down with homework?!”

Hikari swivelled in her seat and silenced the jock with a glare. At the same time, the new teacher turned away from the chalkboard where she had been writing her name and said, “Are you already complaining, Mister... Suzuhara? I am not demanding a novel. All I am asking for is a brief essay detailing your experiences after Third Impact. Oh yes,” the woman swept her gaze over the rest of the class as she continued, “I have a feeling many of you came back with someone else. I came back with my husband, for instance. You are allowed to work on your essays with those people.”

This time, the look Hikari directed at Toji was much less severe. He nodded, and glanced sidelong at Kensuke, who also silently agreed.

“Miss Yamura?” Rei raised her hand, to the quiet astonishment of the students who hadn't seen her since the previous year. It was the first time they had ever witnessed her pay attention to anything happening in the classroom.

“Ah, You must be Rei Ayanami. NERV has already contacted me. I would still like an essay from you, but I'm not expecting you to reveal anything that may be considered sensitive information.”

“Have you also been informed of why my fellow pilots are not here?” Rei asked.

“I'll speak to you later on that. Now then, back to the lesson.”

The students perked up at the mention of Shinji and Asuka's absence and would have begun badgering Rei, but Hikari silenced the class with the loud slap of a ruler hitting her desk.

When the lunch bell rang, the teacher stopped Rei before she left the room.

“Our class representative filled me in on the situation with your fellow pilots before school started this morning,” the woman said. “Since they apparently have something of a fan club here, I thought it best not to mention anything, as I'm sure the other students would start harassing you for details.”

“Thank you for your discretion, ma'am,” Rei said, and left for the cafeteria.

* * *

“Everything alright, Rei?” Hikari asked shortly after Rei joined the small group at their table.

“...No. This food is terrible,” Rei replied, pushing her plate away without even a taste. The smell alone had been enough to make her reconsider on the way to the table. She regretted not preparing something in the morning before leaving for school.

“It's the first day back at school and they're already servin' us crap!” Toji exclaimed, staring in horror at the nameless entity on his plate.

“Guess some things never change,” said Kensuke. He leaned over and poked at Rei's pathetic-looking salad, and thought he saw something scuttling away behind a lettuce leaf.

Hikari nodded. “I was afraid this would still happen. Fortunately, I planned ahead!”

A bento box was placed on the table in front of Rei. She looked up in confusion, and Hikari offered an encouraging nod. Upon opening it, Rei was assaulted by the aroma of a well-prepared vegetarian stir-fry.

“T-thank you, Hikari,” she stammered, before slowly beginning to eat.

“If you'd like, I can bring some lunch for you as well from now on.”

“Oh, you do not need to go to such trouble...”

“Don't even bother tryin', Ayanami,” Toji interjected. “She's already doing our lunches,” he indicated towards himself and Kensuke, “and probably wouldn't even bat an eye at feedin' one more. If I have to admit one flaw in Hikari, it's that she always makes too much food.” He shied away when he finished speaking as Hikari glanced at him, and returned to his meal, missing the tiny smile the pig-tailed girl sent his way.

Rei smiled, and gave her thanks to Hikari for the offer.

“So how is Shinji, anyway?” Kensuke asked after a few minutes of companionable quiet.

“Yeah, has the devil gotten bored wit- Ow!” Toji's sarcastic remark was cut short by an elbow in his ribs from Hikari. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Rei looked around before speaking, but nobody at the nearby tables appeared to be paying attention to the group. Speaking quietly, she filled them in on Shinji's recent memories as best as she could, but completely left out the attack on Asuka, not wishing to upset them. Kensuke was impressed that Shinji was able to 'sleep-cook'. Toji clenched his fists as he heard of the incident in the Evangelion cage, but remained angrily silent.

“Asuka has been... unsure of herself recently,” Rei said. “Yesterday she felt that she was not doing enough to help Shinji, and the depression affected her sync ratio.”

“But that's not true at all!” Hikari quietly exclaimed.

Rei nodded, closing up the empty bento box and returning it. “It has been resolved. Asuka now knows that she must always do her best in order to ensure Shinji's safety. If she falls, then Shinji will be lost to us.”

“Damn, I wish I could pilot again,” Toji muttered and punched the table, just as the bell rang to signal the start of the next period. “I hate feeling this useless.” His gaze dropped to the table when a soft hand gently wrapped around his clenched fist. Looking back up, he stared into Hikari's eyes, sighing as he felt his spirits lifting. As one, they both nodded at each other and got up to leave the cafeteria.

The rest of the school day passed by in a blur to Rei, and she was soon standing outside the school gate with Hikari, Toji and Kensuke. Just as the two boys turned to head home, a cleared throat from behind stopped them.

“Aren't you forgetting someone, Suzuhara?” Hikari pointedly asked.

Toji slapped a palm to his forehead. “Oh right, Sakura,” he moaned. “Man, guess I'm somehow still too used to her bein' in the hospital.”

Hikari sighed, “Come on, let's go there together. I have to pick up my little sister too.”

“We may as well all go together,” Kensuke suggested. “You know, since we live in the same building.”

Rei looked up at the sky and remarked, “It is a nice day. I do not mind walking the extra distance.”

When they reached the primary school, Toji was almost knocked to the ground by an over-enthusiastic sister, who immediately began to chat about her first day at school in nearly a year. Stories were swapped as Hikari's own younger sister Nozomi joined them, and the four girls and two boys finally headed home.

* * *

“Hey, didn't you buy something for Shinji on the weekend?” Toji asked as the group left the elevator at the apartment complex.

“Oh!” Sakura turned to Rei. “Please wait here, I'll go get it!”

The girl sprinted off to the Suzuhara residence, the teenagers trailing slowly behind. Just as Toji reached his door, Sakura ran back out and handed a wrapped item to Rei. The First Child just barely caught the sound of the girl's father admonishing her for running through the house.

“Um... I don't know when Shinji's birthday is, so please give it to him then,” Sakura said.

Rei took the item and nodded solemnly. “I am unsure as well, but I will find out.” She bid her friends goodbye, and walked up the stairs to the seventh floor, nodding a greeting at the Section Two patrol as they passed her. Just before she reached the door, she took a closer look at the present in her hands.

Whatever it was, it felt soft through the festive wrapping paper. Sakura had done a good job wrapping it, and even taped a small piece of card to it with careful, neat writing that wished Shinji a happy birthday.

“I am home,” Rei said as she entered the apartment.

“Welcome back,” came Asuka's voice from the lounge room, amidst the tinny sound of video game explosions.

“Do you know Shinji's date of birth?” Rei asked as she stepped into the lounge room, where Asuka was playing her handheld game console, while Shinji sat nearby.

Asuka didn't respond, her fingers tapping madly away on the buttons, but after a minute she exhaled loudly and said, “Nope, can't say I do. Why?” as she stretched her neck. Rei showed her the present, and said that it was from Sakura. “...Ah. Well... Misato should know, seeing as she should have received dossiers for both Shinji and I just before taking guardianship of us.”

“Then I shall ask her when she gets home. How has Shinji been today?”

“Not much happening in his head today it seems,” Asuka replied. “I _think_ he remembered another conversation, but his contributions to it seemed to be incredibly minor, so I couldn't tell what it was.”

Rei placed the present on the coffee table and opened her school bag. A notebook and pen joined the gift, and Asuka raised an eyebrow. “Homework already?” Rei quickly explained about the essay, to a roll of the eyes from the redhead. “Hope the teacher's not expecting much from _you_.”

As Asuka returned to her game, Rei began to write. The teacher had not stated that there was a minimum size required, but she put in as much detail as she could.

That night, Misato came stumbling through the door just after eight o'clock. She collapsed onto the lounge and groaned heavily.

“Hard day?” Asuka inquired, eliciting another groan from Misato. “Well, your dinner's in the oven. Want it in here?”

The exhausted woman simply nodded, and Asuka left the room. After finally dragging her head upright, Misato noticed the package on the table. Rei told her about it, and asked if she knew Shinji's birthday. Tired as she was, Misato still made the effort to get vertical again and head into her room, returning a moment later with a slim folder which she passed to Rei.

“That's all I was given on Shinji before I met him,” Misato said, plopping back down on the couch.

Rei opened the folder, and withdrew the single piece of paper it contained. It was a very simple sheet of data on Shinji Ikari, giving only a black and white image of his face, his name, age, and his birthdate.

“June 6th, 2001,” Rei said. “...That is unfortunate. Today is the 15th. Sakura missed his birthday by only nine days.”

“Well, we couldn't have had a birthday party then,” Misato mumbled with her eyes closed, only half paying attention to what was being said. “June 6th was when we did the tests on Unit-01.”

“ _Scheiße._ ” Asuka was standing in the doorway, carrying Misato's dinner on a tray. She placed it down on the coffee table, and pulled Shinji with her as she stalked back out. As Misato began to eat, Rei got up and silently left, unnoticed by the tired and hungry woman.

In the kitchen, Rei saw Asuka sit down at the kitchen table with Shinji and place her head in her hands. She sat across from the girl and quietly said, “It is a sad coincidence.”

Asuka nodded gloomily. “He spent that day trying to kill me, then unconscious in a berserk Eva.” She snorted derisively. “I guess he has me beat at having the shittiest birthday as well...” She refused to speak further, and Rei eventually got up and went to her room.

* * *

The next few days would help to improve Asuka's mood, but not in any way she would have expected. After making lunch, she had returned to the lounge room to the surprising sight of Shinji attempting to dance. When she had finished chuckling at the boy's flailing, she noticed that the dance was actually the synchronisation training the two pilots had been forced to learn.

Asuka had watched the boy for a while. Shinji would begin dancing, but would quickly bungle up and start again. After a few minutes, she had felt herself twitch slightly, as if her own body wanted her to join in and synchronise once more. With a sigh, she had stepped up next to Shinji as he fell over once more.

Shinji stopped failing badly as soon as Asuka joined in.

For the rest of the week, the pattern would repeat. Shinji would get up and begin the training, but would be unable to make any progress until Asuka began the dance as well. On the second day, Asuka found the tape containing the music they had trained with, and put the stereo on to play it. Not only did the song improve Shinji's unconscious ability to synchronise, Asuka found herself savouring the memory as well, only sighing occasionally whenever a misstep forced a restart.

Between the enjoyment of the daytime dancing and the sync tests and combat simulations every few days, Asuka's sync ratio slowly crept up to 60% to the delight of Misato. When the woman was told of why Asuka seemed so happy, she expressed her envy at being too busy to witness the dance. Later, Rei would also admit that she wished for a chance to see it as well.

The next two weeks nearly zoomed past, and the third week would have as well, if it had not been for one little incident.

The Second Revenant made its appearance on the Third of July, 2016.

* * *

Misato had taken Shinji with her to the command centre, and he was now sitting down next to Maya in a spare chair. The situation had apparently been noticed by some part of his dormant mind, as his left hand was already rhythmically clenching and unclenching.

"VTOL squadrons 17 and 23 are at full strength and on ready launch status, Commander, loaded with anti-armour and thermobaric weapons. They can be over the Revenant in less than five minutes on your order," Makoto reported.  
  
"Acknowledged. Order them to launch immediately. They are to engage the second its head breaches the surface and recon by fire for an AT-Field. They are weapons-free if the Revenant doesn't have one, but are to back off if it does. They probably won't be able to do much damage, but they can help us gauge its strength and keep it distracted while we prepare. Do we have any more Eva lifts repaired?”

“Two were finished yesterday,” came the response from Shigeru. A few key presses on his computer brought up a map on the massive holographic screen floating in the air in front of the bridge crew. Three blinking lights indicated the locations of the elevator shafts. “We also have two armoury buildings ready to receive armaments.”

"Akagi, what do we have ready for deployment as far as weapons? Pilot Soryu is best at melee range, Ayanami at long-range shooting."

"We've got a Sonic Glaive or Progressive Axe for close-in fighting," Ritsuko answered after a moment spent requesting weapon readiness data from the MAGI. "We have a modified Positron Rifle Mk. II for Pilot Ayanami. That will allow her to stay at range and give the heaviest support fire we can for Unit-02.”

“Send a Pallet Rifle and a Glaive to the one closest to the bay area for Pilot Soryu, and the Positron Rifle and another Pallet Rifle to the furthest armoury building for Ayanami.”

The side of Ritsuko's mouth quirked slightly upwards. “Do you expect the Second Child to actually use that gun, or just throw it at her target?”

“It'd probably do just as much damage either way,” Misato retorted with a grin. “But they will be there just in case.”

Maya looked up and said, “Both pilots are in their entry plugs.”

“Begin activation sequences.”

* * *

“ _How are you feeling, Rei? First time back in the saddle for real.”_

“I think I am growing... anxious. I wish to be up there already, destroying that which dares to threaten us.”

On the other side of the video screen, Asuka's mouth curled into a smile. _“Well don't get too excited. This one might just die as fast as the first Revenant.”_

“I do not mind if the fight is over quickly. As long as the enemy is rendered silent, I will be satisfied.” Despite her calm façade, Rei found herself almost tapping her foot as she waited.

The dull metal of the entry plug burst into light as the activation sequence began. After only a few seconds, the light faded, and the opposite wall of the Evangelion cage was now in front of Rei's eyes.

Shigeru's voice filled the plug.  _“Both Evas are activated and standing by. Unit-00 sync ratio is 56%, Unit-02 is 62%.”_

An impressed noise cut off whatever the  man was going to say next.  _ “Not bad, First. Still got a while to go before you catch up to me though!” _

* * *

Misato smiled. “Well then stop cheating by moving the bar!” she said to Asuka, who replied by sticking out her tongue. “Alright, you two raring to go?” When two affirmative answers came back to her, Misato continued. “Good. Now then, the MAGI have confirmed that this one is Unit-11. We'll be sending you topside in a few minutes, but do not engage immediately. Our gunships will make a probing attack as soon as it starts coming ashore. I shouldn't need to tell you your roles, as you've been performing them quite adequately in the simulations.”

Asuka nodded. _“I get up in its face while Rei snipes. Just don't hit me and we'll be fine, Wondergirl.”_

“ _I have thus far managed to refrain from accidentally shooting you, Asuka.”_

“ _What about last week? I only just got out of the way, and you still nearly took Unit-02's chin off!”_

“ _It is not my fault if you are too slow to move when I give the signal.”_

“ _Too slow?! It was less than a second between your warning and the bullet whizzing past!”_

Ritsuko turned off the microphone in the command centre and turned to Misato. “Arguing already. This isn't looking good.”

“This is barely arguing,” Misato replied. “The girls are just blowing off steam. In a moment, they'll change their mood so fast it'll give you whiplash.”

Raising a disbelieving eyebrow, Ritsuko shrugged and reactivated the microphone.

“Okay, settle down,” Misato said. Immediately, the Children snapped their gaze to the video screen showing the Commander's face. She barely refrained from smirking at the sarcastic “Ow” to her left. “Rei, we'll be sending the Positron Rifle to the armoury building closest to your exit point. When you get to the surface I want you to set up on the hill opposite the bay.”

“ _Roger.”_

“Asuka, we've got the Sonic Glaive for you. We'll be sending you both up in thirty seconds.”

“ _How's Shinji?”_ Asuka inquired.

A glance to the side showed Misato that the boy had not changed. “His hand's twitching, but otherwise he's fine.”

As Unit-02 began to move towards the elevator, Asuka replied,  _“Could you do me a favour, Misato?”_

“I'll keep an eye on Shinji for you,” Misato answered, knowing what the request was going to be.

Asuka nodded slowly. _“...Thanks.”_

Professional as the bridge crew were, Maya couldn't stop a tiny smile from appearing on her face, thankfully covered by her position. She glanced sidelong at Shinji before reaching over and gently squeezing his shoulder for a second before returning her focus to the screen in front of her.

When both Units were positioned on the elevators, Misato gave the signal. Stepping forward, she shouted, “Evangelions, _launch!”_

* * *

Alarms split the air as a massive hole opened up in the road. Seconds later, the Evangelion lift passed through the hole and came to a sudden halt. The moment the locks disengaged, Asuka walked Unit-02 forward towards the armoury building. It opened as she neared, and a giant red arm reached in.

The Sonic Glaive was similar to the Japanese naginata. A long spear, but with a knife blade on the end instead of a spear head, combined with Progressive technology to create an anti-Angel polearm. It was a weapon that was almost as tall as the Evangelion that wielded it. To Asuka, it was like an old friend. Simulations simply didn't match the real thing she now held in Unit-02's hand.

“ _Hallo, alter Freund. Was hältst du davon, wieder das Blut unserer Feinde zu vergießen?”_ she murmured with a shark-like grin. The blade flashed in the sunlight as Asuka set the weapon spinning around her Evangelion's body for a few seconds before snapping it into a vertical position and bringing the end of the haft smacking into the ground next to her.

“Unit-02, in position!”

Several kilometres away, a bipod touched down on the top of a hill. The blue fingers of Unit-00 curled around the grip, but the trigger remained clear. Through the sniper interface inside her cockpit, Rei gazed down the scope. The MAGI were in charge of optimising the scope, and could do it much faster than even she could, so she relaxed back into her seat for the time being.

“Unit-00 in position.”

“ _Sixty seconds until the target reaches the surface.”_

The minute slowly ticked past, counting down on a holographic screen inside both Evangelions. Almost before the timer reached 00:00, the two squadrons of VTOLs rose into the air and began pummelling the ocean with missiles and cannon fire.

Asuka zoomed her view in as far as she could. Through the smoke and water she could just barely make out Unit-11's head, just barely above water. A shimmering orange force field was hovering over the ocean, and every single shot fired was either bouncing off or simply exploding against it.

“ _AT-Field. I was afraid of that.”_

Asuka grunted at the obvious statement, but otherwise didn't respond. The aircraft backed off, and she was too busy focusing on the loathsome face that was now peeking above the water. When its chest was above the surface, a glint of metal finally caught Asuka's eye, and brought the grin back to her face.

Her old knife blade was still jammed into Unit-11's mouth. The white beast kept trying to open its mouth to roar at the aircraft, but all that came out was a growl.

“Mind if I add another one?” Asuka sarcastically muttered as Unit-02 began to move forward, her Evangelion's arm outstretched and calling her own AT-Field into being. At least she wouldn't have to deal with the thing _grinning_ at her, or licking its lips, as long as the blade remained in its jaw.

Unit-11 turned to face the new threat, and leaned forward while attempting to roar again. The corners of its mouth turned down as it stomped forward to meet Unit-02.

When the two AT-Fields met, they created a sound akin to a clock tower striking the top of the hour. The noise set Asuka's teeth on edge, and she gritted them as she focused on neutralising the barrier. Just as she could 'feel' the enemy's AT-Field erode completely-

“ _Break left.”_

Asuka reflexively jumped sideways, the weeks of simulation training causing her body to react almost before the words had made it through her ears. She still felt the heat of the positron round through her neural connection as it flew past her and slammed through the weakened AT-Field and then into the hastily-raised arm of Unit-11.

Now the beast roared, the pain of having its arm nearly vaporised outweighing that of its jaw as it wrenched its mouth open and screamed. Perhaps it was Rei enacting some measure of revenge for her fellow pilot that caused her aim to shift slightly and send the next bolt almost down its throat.

“ _Chew on that.”_

The calm demeanour contrasted sharply with the one-liner, but Asuka didn't mind. “Hah!” she crowed in delight. “Nice one, First!”

Unit-11's flesh bubbled as it attempted to regenerate the damage. Its lower jaw was almost completely gone and the left arm was hanging by a few threads of skin and muscle. Despite its lack of eyes, and loss of half its head, the white Evangelion still turned to the hill where the shots had originated and began to run.

“Hey, I'm not done with you yet!” Asuka yelled as a third shot tore a hole in Unit-11's side. The hit staggered it long enough for Asuka to catch up and stick the end of the Sonic Glaive in between its legs, tripping the beast over. Maddened by pain and rage, it got back to its feet and began to swipe wildly at Unit-02.

Having rushed in to attempt a killing blow, Asuka now found herself on the defensive. The first swing gouged a few layers out of the armour on her left arm before she could back away. Behind the white Evangelion, Rei fired again, aiming for its core. Unit-11 was knocked forward as the round struck its back.

Unit-02 was forced to backpedal, and Asuka found herself cursing the long weapon. “Hold fire for a moment, First! You're forcing him too close to me!” she called out.

“ _Acknowledged.”_

Asuka whacked Unit-11 as it attempted to turn back to the hill. The pole struck it in the face, aggravating the rapidly-healing wound. The beast shook its head to try and clear it, giving Asuka time to put sufficient distance between the two giants. With a flick of the wrist, the Sonic Glaive was now pointing directly at the Revenant.

Inside the entry plug, Asuka grinned as she got to work.

The white Evangelion's left arm was the first to go, the blade making short work of the badly healed tatters that kept it attached. Wounds opened all over Unit-11, and the beast's blood spattered on the ground and over Unit-02. The energy required to close the injuries seemed to be running out already, possibly from using its AT-Field. The orange liquid still flowed into the wounds, but much slower than it had with Unit-09.

With a left-to-right swing, Unit-11's right arm joined its left on the ground, severed just above the elbow. The monster roared, and was promptly kicked in the face precisely where the remains of the knife were buried. Its head swung back, and Asuka began carving up its chest.

As soon as she could make out the core, Asuka glanced at the comm screen. “Get ready, Rei.”

The First Child simply nodded before focusing on the sniper interface.

Asuka kicked Unit-11 once more for good measure, and Unit-02's arms drew the Sonic Glaive back, its point aimed directly at its core. Just as the beast began to recover, Asuka yelled, “Fire!” and charged forward. The knife point smashed into the core, heavily cracking and sinking in slightly, but not quite enough to finish it off.

...Until the final positron round slammed into Unit-11's back mere milliseconds after Asuka's strike. As the force pushed the white Evangelion forward, the Sonic Glaive sank fully into the core, and the momentum managed to force the red and orange orb out through the new hole in Unit-11's back.

The core exploded mere seconds later, as Asuka took cover behind the stricken Evangelion her weapon was holding upright. Its body held out just long enough for the blast to dissipate before dissolving into LCL.

* * *

Misato whistled. “That was a nice use of Rei's firepower.”

“Indeed,” Ritsuko agreed. “And I'm not sure we even covered something like that in the simulations.”

“Any damage to the city?”

Maya checked her screen, and shook her head. “Just another crater in the dirt. One armoury building's a little battered, but otherwise fine.

“Excellent. I'd hate to have to explain to the Japanese government why we need to rebuild the city _again_.”

The chief scientist snorted. “As long as our pilots make sure to keep the enemy out of Tokyo-3, we should be fine.”

Misato exhaled, letting out the last of the stress that had been building up inside her since the Pattern Orange had first appeared. Though her two girls couldn't see it, the smile that was now on her face was specifically for them. “Let's bring our heroines back home.”

Misato turned to glance at Shinji as Ritsuko began ordering the recall of the Evangelions. His hand had stopped convulsing the second the enemy marker disappeared from the map.

_'Some part of Shinji must be able to sense what's going on around him,'_ she thought.  _'This is the second time he's reacted to Asuka being in her Eva while in here.'_

With a sigh, Misato took Shinji by the hand and headed to the Evangelion cages so she could congratulate the returning warriors in person.

* * *

As Asuka stepped out of her entry plug, she caught a glimpse of purple hair on the catwalks. She headed in that direction, and Misato beamed at her as she got close. It made Asuka think of a mother cat that was proud of its kitten's accomplishments. Happy, and just a little bit smug.

She was _not_ expecting her new foster mother to ignore the LCL still dripping off the redhead and drag her into a hug.

“You did good out there, Asuka,” Misato mumbled into the girl's ear. Just as suddenly, she let go of Asuka and ran past her to inflict the same torture on Rei, who had just entered the cage. Asuka didn't catch what was said, but Rei's face pinked slightly at the obvious praise.

“That was a wonderful bit of teamwork,” Misato said as she and Rei walked up to Asuka. The three of them left the cages and began the slow walk towards the change rooms. “I'll admit, I was expecting to have to break up an argument over... what was it you used to call it last year? Kill-stealing?”

“Uh... y-yeah, that was it,” Asuka hesitantly replied. “Anyway, I wasn't actually sure if the knife blade would have had the force to fully penetrate that corrupted core. I'm pretty sure I saw it oozing that orange goop. If I had pulled away and tried again, it might have healed.”

“Quick and clever thinking, Asuka,” Misato said. “But since neither of you clearly killed it on your own, now the question is: who do we give the credit to?”

Asuka shrugged. “Split it. It's not much different from the Seventh Angel.”

Misato grinned and dragged Asuka into another hug. “Last year you would have demanded all the credit.”

“Oh, knock it off,” Asuka muttered, but made no effort to break the embrace as she pretended that her face wasn't heating up.

“Now both of you get another kill-silhouette on your Evas!”

“Wait, what?”

“You didn't notice?” Misato asked as she pulled away from the girl and pointed at Unit-02. “Somebody in one of the tech crews is an artist, and got it into their heads to paint some Angel kills.” She chuckled. “Apparently, the MAGI were in full agreement on getting the Eleventh Angel painted on their casing.” Her last words went unheard as Asuka ran off down the catwalk to get a better view of her Evangelion.

Just as Misato had said, there were fresh black silhouettes on Unit-02's left shoulder, only slightly scuffed from the battle. She could easily make out the image of a fish-monster, two identical, slightly overlapping humanoid forms, something that took Asuka a moment to realise was the Eighth Angel, and what was clearly the massive eye of the Tenth Angel.

As she stared at the tallies, Asuka's heart sank a little. Out of fifteen mysterious alien attackers, she could only claim credit for _four._

Perhaps it was a good thing that her ego had been shattered. She would have probably punched one of the other pilots for stealing her glory.

Misato called out to her, pointing towards the other pylon. Curious, Asuka wandered over to the right side of Unit-02, and her eyes shot open as she saw what _else_ she had been credited with.

Nine black Evangelion-shaped silhouettes stood out against the red and orange of the right shoulder pylon, in three rows of three. And below them, there was one more tally mark that looked fresher than the others.

“Misato...” the girl quietly said as she walked back to the woman. “Why...?”

Catching on quickly, Misato replied, “The MP Evas cheated. Enough people saw the footage of your battle, and passed on what happened. You got those kills fair and square.”

“...You'd better be paying that artist what he deserves.”

“You're damn right I am. Ritsuko herself insisted on it after seeing the good work he did on the MAGI's kill.”

Rei returned, having left to inspect her own Evangelion. At Asuka's inquisitive glance,  Rei gave a small smile as she held up three fingers. She looked thoughtful for a moment, before adding one more finger. That confused Asuka for a moment, before she remembered what Misato had asked her a few minutes ago about today's kill.

“So what about Shinji?” she asked. “How many does he have?”

Misato began to count them off on her fingers. “Third through Seventh Angels, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth and Fourteenth.” She grimly looked away. “Nobody's getting credit for the Thirteenth, _or_ the Seventeeth. Anyway, that's nine kills for Shinji.”

Not so long ago, Asuka would have torn a strip out of the boy for having so many Angel kills compared to her. But then again, the _other_ kills she had acquired certainly balanced that out. She nodded and said, “Pretty good for somebody who hated what he did.”

The redhead made a half-hearted attempt to break out of Misato's sudden embrace. “I'm proud of you, Asuka,” the woman said with a smile.

* * *

When they reached the change rooms, Misato waited outside with Shinji while the two pilots went in. Rei and Asuka stepped out of their LCL-covered plugsuits and into the hot showers, beginning the arduous task of ridding their bodies of the orange substance.

“Hey First,” Asuka said after a few minutes. “What did Misato say to you on the catwalk? It's not often I get to see some colour in your face.”

There was no response for a moment, and Asuka was about to dismiss her own question when Rei quietly replied, “Misato said that I was already making her proud to be my foster mother. It was... somewhat embarrassing for me. I am relieved that you were the only one who noticed.”

“Heh, I guess that would do it.”

“But at the same time, it made me... happy.”

Asuka was sure there was a smile on the other girl's face now. “Mmm, I get that a lot from Misato too. Somehow, she's able to tease people without them _actually_ wanting her to stop.”

The conversation trailed off as Asuka went to work on her hair. She heard Rei's shower finish first, and just as she turned her own taps off, the First Child was already walking out of the room. Since she didn't feel like having another shower before bed, Asuka had taken the time to really scrub out the LCL from her hair with some of the shampoo she had brought in from home. Even though she had felt a little guilty about pilfering _hair products_ , the fact that it was helping Shinji through his terrors was enough to make her stop worrying about the theft during the early post-Impact days.

She had also started using more than was needed, just so the scent was a bit stronger.

Asuka left the change room twenty minutes after Rei did, smelling of strawberries. Misato knew what had taken so long, and merely rolled her eyes good-naturedly as they headed to the elevator.

* * *

The next day, Rei was able to read her completed essay to Class 2-A. Since almost everything that had happened to her revolved around NERV it was a rather small essay, but the teacher accepted the circumstances.

The post-battle clean-up was completed three days after the Second Revenant's death, and Misato passed on messages of thanks from the Japanese government to the girls over their ability to keep collateral damage to a minimum.

A day later, on the seventh of July, something happened in the Katsuragi apartment that Asuka would consider far more important than any Evangelion battle. Possibly more than the entire Angel War.

An hour after Rei had left for school, Shinji had gone into her room and retrieved his cello. While Asuka knew that he was actually rather good with the instrument, it hadn't been tuned properly and so the song it produced as he played in the lounge room was almost unrecognisable.

Shinji had followed up the performance by claiming that he wasn't actually very good, and that he only played because nobody had made him stop. Asuka had to wrack her brain to remember her own responses -while trying not to chuckle at the fact that he was _right_ this time- and she was sure at least one had been wrong when Shinji began to talk over her.

Just before noon, Shinji got up to answer the phone without it ringing, and the conversation brought a feeling of dread to Asuka's stomach as she finally realised what else had happened on the day Shinji was remembering.

_'No! Damnit, why did you have to remember_ this _day, you idiot?!'_

As expected, Shinji soon began to have the conversation that Asuka had tried to bury inside her head.

“Eh? What?”

_'Scheiße! It's starting! What the hell should I do?'_

“Uh-uh.”

Asuka squeezed her eyes shut and jammed her fingers in her ears, trying to block out the memory as it pushed the mental dirt out of the hole she had dug. It didn't work; her own treacherous mind eagerly provided the lines that had been said on that fateful day.

“Uh... but why?”

_'I've got nothing else to do,'_ Asuka thought sarcastically, and she grimaced.  _'I should never have said something so..._ stupid!'

“That's your reason? You're weird.”

_'Tell me about it, I brought up your dead mother, like either of us needed a reminder of how fucked up we are.'_

“That's not it.”

Asuka sighed in defeat, and her hands dropped to her sides. “Are you scared?” she muttered.

“I'm not afraid! Pucker up!” Shinji angrily rose to his feet, and Asuka darkly recalled that this had been exactly the side of him she had been trying to bring out with her actions towards him. A side that would push back against her instead of folding like wet paper.

_'And look at how well that turned out.'_

“Yeah.”

_'Oh mein Gott,'_ Asuka mentally moaned as she stood up, leaning on the table with her head down.  _'I can't really be thinking of going_ this  _far with his memory am I?'_

_**'Do it. He is expecting you to kiss him. You have no excuse now.'** _

Asuka pounded a fist into her forehead.  _ 'No! It's still wrong! I'll hug Shinji because I know my presence helps him, but I won't kiss him again just because he's remembering me doing that!' _

_**'But he is waiting** _ **_for you. Look at him.'_ **

Asuka glanced up and saw that Shinji had frozen in place. Unlike his usual semi-conscious state, now he resembled an android waiting for a command. She let out a long, slow,  _ loud _ , and very German swear word.

“Hmph, even the way you are, you still find a way to cause problems for me, jerk,” Asuka muttered. “ _Fine,_ I'll do it.”

Her heart began to beat faster as Asuka moved closer to Shinji, eyes locked on his. The last time, she had simply dived into the kiss to 'get it over with'. Now she was taking her time, looking closely at every inch of Shinji's face, sad even while waiting for her kiss. Asuka noticed that his hair was starting to get unruly again, and would need to be trimmed soon.

She also wondered if she should run to the bathroom afterwards, to complete the memory.

Some part of Asuka knew that she was simply stalling, and she realised with mounting horror that that part  _ wanted _ to feel his lips on hers. She finally halted her forward movement when her forehead was only a few centimetres away from bumping into Shinji's face.

_ 'If six months of care hasn't been enough to snap his brain back into place, the horrible memory of his first kiss isn't going to do any better. I just hope it doesn't send him  **backwards** .' _

The impatient piece of Asuka finally got tired of waiting and pushed her forward. Her lips met Shinji's for the first time in close to a year. His warmth flowed into Asuka through the contact, bringing with it an electric sensation that sent tingles running down her spine. Asuka closed her eyes and lost herself in the amazing feeling she was experiencing. She did not even care that she wasn't properly re-enacting the scene by holding his nose closed. It just felt too good to ruin again.

But at the same time, there was still something crucial missing. The same thing, or rather the lack of said thing, that had made her run to the bathroom and pretend to brush her teeth to cover the despair she had felt. The only consolation was that this time, there was practically no choice about it.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the two teenagers stood there, locked together by a kiss. Despite the lack of physical contact, Asuka found that she wanted the moment to last forever as the traitorous piece of her that had forced the issue looked on. If it had a face, it would have looked more smug than Misato after a particularly strong teasing.

Spots started to dance across the inside of Asuka's eyelids as a very important thing occurred to her. She wanted to stay there forever; but she  _ needed _ to breathe. With an extreme amount of reluctance, she opened her eyes and-

Stared directly into the shocked gaze of Shinji.

Her knees started to tremble, and her lungs were screaming for air, but Asuka's eyes refused to let her head move as they attempted to interpret what they were seeing. The last time she had seen his eyes so...  _ alive _ ... had been...

Their lips parted contact, but it was not due to any movement on Asuka's part. Her body began to thank the heavens for fresh oxygen, when she heard something that stole the breath from her lungs before they could recover.

“A-A-...Asuka?”


	19. Chapter 19

“A-A-...Asuka?”

“Shinji...” Asuka's heart swelled with joy as she realised what she had somehow managed to accomplish. Her heart was hammering against her ribcage as if it were trying to escape.

The two teenagers stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but then Shinji blinked slowly, before his eyes hardened. “ _No!_ ” he screamed, directly in Asuka's face, who took an involuntary step backwards. “You're trying to trick me again!” He began breathing heavily, as his hands came up to clutch at his face.

The joy Asuka had been feeling only seconds before evaporated as quickly as it came. “W-what?!” she exclaimed. “Shinji, you're not dreaming anymore! This is real!”

Shinji began to slowly back away. “It can't be! You're still using _her_ face! Why would Asuka ever want to kiss _me?!”_ he demanded, roughly wiping an arm across his mouth.

Asuka's face heated up at the reminder of what she had just done. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, attempting to explain her actions, but found herself tongue-tied. She could not even explain it to herself, let alone the boy in front of her.

Said boy was now glancing around the room, clearly seeking to escape. His back was to the lounge, and Asuka was blocking the way to the front door. The only clear way for Shinji to escape would be the balcony.

So he decided to go through Asuka.

Despite her shock, Asuka was able to twist her body just enough so that she didn't receive the full force of Shinji's attempted shoulder charge. The hit was still enough to knock her off balance, however, and she fell to the side.

For a moment it appeared Shinji had a clear shot at the front door and escape, and in his current state Asuka dreaded what would happen to him. But then one of his feet grazed the top of her sprawled-out leg, and Shinji stumbled for a few feet before the lack of friction between his socks and the floor caused him to fall head-first into the wall of the hallway.

Asuka forgot about her own aches as she got up and ran over to the prostrate boy, his stillness ringing alarm bells inside her mind as she knelt down next to him, placing herself between Shinji and the door just in case he made another attempt to flee. There was now a rather large dent in the wall, and all Asuka could do was pray that there hadn't been a support beam in the path of Shinji's head. She rolled him over, and for a split second she feared that the vacant look in his eyes had meant a return to his semi-comatose state, until Shinji groggily raised a hand to his forehead.

“That... that actually hurt...” he whispered.

“Of course it did,” Asuka huffed as she pushed his hand away to inspect his forehead. “You smacked your damn head into a wall, genius.”

At the sound of the girl's voice, Shinji shot up, almost colliding with Asuka's head. With a glance to his right proving that he had not imagined the voice, he back-pedalled as best as he could away from Asuka while still sitting down until his shoulder blades touched the door to the small store room. The movement of his body made him appear as if he were trying to crawl up the door and escape into the ceiling like a spider. He gave up after a few seconds, and pressed himself against the door as he began to hyperventilate.

Asuka stood up and moved closer to him, and Shinji squeezed his eyes shut as he began to mumble, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” over and over again.

“Shinji, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you,” Asuka said, keeping her voice low to try and calm down the boy, who responded by repeating his apologies faster.

“I'msorryI'msorryI'mso-”

Shinji froze, and his eyes shot open, as Asuka pressed a soft, warm hand to his cheek. “It's alright,” she said, keeping a hand to his cheek as Shinji slowly slid down the door in shock.

_'I have no idea why this works so well. Good thing I don't care,'_ Asuka thought as she dropped to her knees at the same speed as Shinji. The boy's rapid breathing slowed to a much more normal pace as Asuka ran her thumb over his cheek.

“Asuka... It really is you...” Shinji said in a breathy whisper. His eyes widened. “But that means... oh gods! Asuka, I'm so s-”

The hand on his cheek moved, a finger landing on his mouth accompanied by a warning look from Asuka. “No. No apologising. There's nothing to be sorry for,” she said.

“But I just tried to... and I thought you...”

The look intensified, and Shinji closed his mouth with a gulp. Asuka sighed. Dozens of questions were now running through her mind, all clamouring to be the first out of her mouth.

Shinji was _back_. And all because of _her_. Asuka had to fight down the smile that threatened to bloom on her face. There were more important things to deal with first. There would be time to celebrate later.

“Look, just answer me this: what has changed? Why do you now know that I'm real?”

Shinji frowned for a moment, his eyes drifting to the floor. “When I hit the wall, it... hurt,” he slowly said.

“That's generally what happens when you smack your head into a wall” Asuka replied as she moved her hand up to his forehead, pushing the unruly hair out of the way to examine his forehead and scalp.

“No, I mean it _hurt_.” Shinji sounded more surprised than injured and appeared to not even notice the insult. His forehead only had a small abrasion on it, to her relief.

“Yes, yes, you already said it hurt. Why is that so important?”

Shinji turned his gaze to Asuka's face, which reddened slightly as cobalt met sapphire. “My nightmares... I remember having so many of them, and they always felt so _real._ But I haven't felt _pain_ in so long I had almost forgotten the sensation.” He put a hand to his head and groaned. “Ugh, I feel like I've been asleep for years.”

Asuka's hands returned to her side, and she shook her head. “Six months. It's July. You've been...” Asuka waved her hands vaguely, “gone, I guess.”

“Huh? Gone?” For the first time, Shinji seemed to realise exactly where he was as he looked into the kitchen. “Wait, this is Misato's apartment. How did I get here? The last thing I remember was...” He groaned as he tried to recall.

“Well at least I can answer _that_ question easily enough,” Asuka remarked. “Misato and I found you near the hole in the middle of the city, unconscious with a head wound and a broken hand. We decided to bring you back here.”

“Misato's... alive?” Shinji whispered, not yet ready to believe what he had heard. At a nod from Asuka, he shuddered as tears threatened to escape from his eyes. Finally, he got himself under control and asked, “What did you mean when you said I was 'gone'?”

Asuka rubbed the back of her head. “It's... kind of hard to explain. You were unconscious for a few days, and sick from an infection as well. Eventually, you woke up, but... it was like you were a robot. I had to literally order you around, or you would just stand there with this empty look on your face.”

Shinji frowned. “If I woke up then, why don't I remember anything?”

“... Sleepwalking? It's about the closest thing I can think of to describe your state to you. Anyway, eventually Akagi and the bridge crew found us, and we all went to NERV to get you checked out. Unfortunately, even with their advanced medical equipment, we couldn't find a way to wake you up properly.”

“Doctor Akagi? She came back too?”

Asuka nodded. “Yeah, almost everybody's come back from Third Impact, in fact.”

It was probably one of the worst possible things to mention, as Shinji curled in on himself and mumbled through his knees, “After I killed them all...”

“Stop. It wasn't your fault.” Asuka laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but Shinji roughly shook it off.

“It was me. I just couldn't stand it anymore,” he mumbled, curling up tighter. “ _I_ made the decision.”

Asuka's voice was now tinged with irritation as she said, “Shinji, stop. SEELE were the ones orchestrating everything. _They_ forced the gun into your hands.”

“ _But I still pulled the trigger!”_ Shinji shouted, directly into Asuka's face once more. The anger disappeared, and he tilted over until he was laying on the floor, facing away from the girl. “ _I_ gave up. _I_ did it,” he whispered. “Nothing can change that...”

Any attempt Asuka made to get the despondent boy vertical again failed, as he would simply collapse back to the ground. She changed tactics, scooting around to a point where she could look at his face. She didn't like what she saw.

The light was starting to go out of Shinji's eyes.

“Look, people are returning, but only a few at NERV know what happened,” Asuka explained desperately. “And _none_ of them are blaming you for it, Shinji. I haven't heard a single bad word about you.”

“...Nobody?” Shinji shifted his head slightly to look at Asuka, who latched onto the glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Nobody,” Asuka repeated. “SEELE and your father are first in line for the blame. Governments all over the world have condemned them. If they ever return, they'd probably get executed for crimes against humanity. The people who know the truth consider _you_ just another one of their victims.”

Shinji lethargically sat back upright, leaning against the wall with his head drooping. A short, hollow laugh left his mouth. “Hah. 'Victim'. How I wish I could believe the same thing.”

“Come on, you were being manipulated.” When Shinji's only response was to scoff, Asuka's temper flared. “Hey! You're not the only one that was tricked into what they did!”

“Perhaps,” Shinji grudgingly conceded. “But tell me something. Do you ever have nightmares?”

“What's that got to...” Asuka began, before sighing and saying, somewhat reluctantly, “Yeah, occasionally I did. But I haven't had one in a long time.” _'Thanks to you,'_ she mentally added.

Shinji looked up, and Asuka found herself lost in the sudden intensity in his eyes, before he said, “Have those nightmares ever felt so real, so vivid, that it's like you're living through the event again?”

Asuka backed off slightly, looking away as she thought back to her own dreams. “...No. They've always felt at least a little surreal,” she slowly answered.

A small grin crossed Shinji's face, but there was no humour in it. “That's what mine feel like. Every last one of them.” The grin vanished without a trace and he placed a hand against his chest. “The feeling of my body being _melted_ by the Fifth Angel while I scream myself hoarse. Being forced to watch as your mind was assaulted by the Fifteenth, unable to move, powerless to help.”

Shinji brought his hand up to his face and stared into the palm. “The sensation of Kaworu's crushed body in my hand after I murdered the only person that I thought liked me unconditionally. I feel all of them as if I were living through those moments again. And those are just the 'good' nightmares,” he said, turning his gaze back to Asuka, who had looked away at the mention of her mind rape.

Asuka squeezed her eyes shut as Shinji continued, speaking of things she wouldn't wish on anybody, such as Unit-01, most likely under control of a Dummy Plug, murdering everybody that Shinji knew while he struggled in vain to seize control of the Evangelion. What later stood out most in her mind was when the boy spoke of a recurring nightmare where he was forced to watch as Unit-02 was desecrated by the Mass Production Evangelions while she screamed his name.

After a few minutes of silence that Asuka spent wishing she could forget what she had just heard, she grabbed Shinji by the upper arm and lifted him to his feet, Thankfully, he remained vertical without assistance as Asuka led him to the lounge room.

“But then sometimes I see... you,” Shinji murmured as he sat down.

Asuka froze halfway towards the couch. “M-me?”

Shinji focused his gaze on the switched-off television as he replied, “Well, not _you_ you. It's some... thing that looks like you and taunts me with my bad memories, especially where you were involved.”

_'”Stop using her face!”'_ The words echoed in Asuka's head, and she quietly repeated them out loud, to Shinji's shock. “Shinji, what's the last thing you clearly remember before today?” she quickly asked.

Shinji frowned at the sudden topic change, and twisted his face in concentration. Finally, he said, “I remember... a nightmare, I think. I was piloting Unit-01, in one of the testing chambers.”

_'Oh no...'_

“Unit-02 was there, as well as the thing with your face,” Shinji continued, not noticing the look of panic on the face of the girl next to him. “It was bad enough when it just looked like you, but when I saw your Evangelion too... it was like it was provoking me. Daring me to attack. I just got so _angry..._ ”

Shinji finally took a moment to glance at Asuka to see her reaction. He was not expecting to see her eyes as wide as dinner plates. “What is it?” he nervously asked.

Asuka licked her lips, trying to bring moisture back to her suddenly dry throat. “Shinji... that wasn't a nightmare.” She couldn't keep the eye contact going, and looked away. “Doctor Akagi came up with the idea of putting you in Unit-01 so she could use the neural interface for a better brain scan. You... woke up when they tried to end the test.”

“ _Stop it... leave me alone...”_

“ _Don't you remember my voice?”_

“ _You're not Asuka!”_

A visible shudder shook Shinji's body, and he drew his legs up to his chest. “I... I attacked... _you?_ ” he mumbled, before crying out, “I thought that thing was just trying to trick me!” Just as the tears were about to form in his eyes, and an apology begin to escape his lips, a hand fell on his shoulder and squeezed. He looked up...

Into Asuka's calm smile.

“It's alright,” she softly replied. “You weren't in your right mind. That's why I did my best to disable your Eva without hurting you.”

With a sniffle, Shinji let his legs drop off the couch and back down to the floor. “I know you hate when I do this but... I'm sorry, Asuka,” he apologised.

Asuka sighed good-naturedly, but said, “Fine, I'll let you apologise for that. There was no harm done anyway.”

To her surprise, the corners of Shinji's mouth turned up slightly as Asuka accepted his apology, and she decided against the small rant she had been planning about the meagre hand-to-hand skills that he had displayed during that incident. She had no desire to say anything that would ruin the first proper smile the boy gave her since his awakening.

_'Damn, I want..._ need _to ask Shinji so many things, but he's been through enough recently,'_ Asuka silently mused.  _'He needs some time to collect his thoughts. Besides, when Misato hears about this...'_

A glance at the clock on the wall revealed to Asuka that a much more immediate meeting was about to take place. She prayed that Shinji would be able to handle the surprise.

Rei would be home from school soon.

* * *

Under a grey sky that carried with it the suggestion of rain, Rei Ayanami walked home, quietly trailing just behind Kensuke, Toji, Hikari, and their siblings. The clouds were a relief to the girl, as her pale skin did not appreciate direct sunlight very much. Although the weather forecasters had predicted that this coming summer would not be as bad as it was the previous year, she was still not looking forward to the heat.

When the topic of her complexion and the approaching summer had come up between her and Misato, the older woman had remarked, “It's probably a good thing you didn't get out much last year. Some days it felt like the air itself was being cooked.”

She had been the first to complete her essay, mainly because she had left Instrumentality as late as she had. Despite this, she had eventually managed to finish a suitably sized piece of writing. It had not crossed Rei's mind to go into some detail on her fight with the Second Revenant until Kensuke had exulted about it while the teens were together for lunch one day. After consulting with Misato, it was agreed that she could speak of her role on that day.

She found it more interesting, maybe even a little more enjoyable, to write about her trip to the mall though, for some reason.

The first droplets of rain had just begun to fall as Rei reached the apartment building. She waved goodbye to her friends and went up to her own floor. The second the door to the Katsuragi household opened, an arm reached out and yanked her inside, and a hand was clapped over her mouth before she could make a sound.

“Quiet!” Asuka hissed. She relaxed her grip on the other girl's mouth when Rei nodded before tilting her head in confusion. In response, Asuka whispered, “Got a surprise for you.” Though she tried to hide it, Rei could detect a hint of a smile on the redhead's face. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she nodded and followed her housemate, depositing her bag on the dining room table as she passed, as the pair crept towards the lounge room.

Just as Rei passed through the doorway, Asuka's expression darkened slightly and she cursed under her breath as the two girls heard the toilet flush. Rei was dragged further into the lounge room as Asuka disappointedly muttered, “So much for having time to make this good...”

A moment later, they heard the bathroom door open. Rei's eyes widened significantly as a familiar quiet voice said, “Huh? Where did this bag come from?” Asuka roughly turned her around to face the doorway as the sound of footsteps came closer, before standing in front of her.

“Is that your bag on the table?” Shinji asked as he stepped into the lounge room. “Are you going out or something?”

Asuka shook her head.“No, Shinji. Somebody just arrived.”

Shinji seemed to flinch slightly, before looking furtively around the room. Just as he was about to ask another question, he saw a pale hand come out from behind Asuka and push the girl aside.

“Hello, Shinji,” said the last girl Shinji ever expected to see again.

Asuka moved towards Shinji with her hands raised in a placating gesture as he recoiled from the sight of the First Child, taking several steps back and almost bumping into a wall again. “Relax Shinji, it's fine, she's real too,” said Asuka. The quick reassurance seemed to help, and Shinji relaxed slightly as the redhead slowly stepped aside.

“Ayanami?!” Shinji breathed.

“It- it is good to see you well again. I-... I am glad...” Words failed Rei, and the stunned girl surprised even herself as she raised a hand to her eyes to wipe away the moisture that was suddenly building up. She tried once more to verbally express how she felt, before giving up and walking forward to gently place her arms around Shinji.

The shock of such a display from the previously-emotionless First Child had Shinji frozen in surprise for a moment, but it only took a moment for him to thaw out and gingerly return the hug as tears came to his eyes.

“Why did you come back?” Shinji whispered in Rei's ear. “I thought you had chosen to stay in there.”

“Lilith decided to release me, and let me leave Instrumentality.” Rei withdrew one arm and placed a hand on her chest as she continued. “As a result, I am now as human as you and the Second Child.”

“Hmph,” huffed Asuka as she folded her arms across her chest. “ _Both_ of you managed to ruin the surprise I had planned.” Her words brought the embrace to an end, as Shinji awkwardly stepped away and rubbed the back of his head. She exaggeratedly turned her back on the other two teens. “But I suppose I should have expected that from you two. After all, you are re-mmph!”

Shinji barely even saw Rei move. One second he was staring into her red eyes, the next she was in front of Asuka with a hand clamped over the other girl's mouth. “I will tell him myself,” she said, withdrawing the hand. Asuka raised an eyebrow, but silently acquiesced, waving a hand in dismissal before sitting on the sofa.

“Huh? Tell me what?” Shinji asked.

Before answering, Rei walked over to the couch. A confused Shinji followed her, and sat down between the two girls. “You know that I was... created using the DNA of your mother, Yui Ikari.” At a grim nod from Shinji, the First Child continued. “An off-handed remark from Asuka shortly after I left Instrumentality led me to realise what that makes us. We can be considered to be brother and sister.”

Shinji's eyes never left the girl's face as she conveyed her message, his own countenance growing more and more sombre with a sinking feeling of realisation that reached its nadir the moment Rei said the word 'sister'. "...Siblings..." he said, tearing his eyes away from the bluenette and focusing on the ground, a mirthless smile on his face. "Ever since I met you, I always felt as if there were something familiar about you. But when I found out that my father created you, I guess I became afraid of what you were. I didn't really think of how it defined our relationship."

“Hey.”

The boy looked up as Asuka gently smacked his shoulder. “What is it?” he asked, rubbing the spot where her hand had struck.

“Stop focusing on that,” Asuka replied. “On what you did wrong or whatever. Think about the now. You've just been told you have a sister, yet you look as though someone just ran over your dog.”

Shinji sighed. “I know, but...” He shrugged helplessly, and turned to Rei. “I'm really not trying to be rude, Ayanami. It's just that-”

“Please, Shinji,” the girl quietly interrupted with a raised hand. “We are siblings. You may call me Rei.”

“O-oh. Um, okay... Rei,” Shinji stuttered out. “A-anyway, I'm just wondering why you two are being so nice to me, after everything I did.”

Behind the boy, Asuka let out a loud groan and collapsed back onto the sofa. “I already told you, dummy! We don't think you're to blame.”

Rei nodded. “All three of us were merely pawns. If you were really to blame, then I would be as well, for choosing you as the one to control Third Impact.”

Shinji closed his eyes, and appeared to shrink into himself with a sigh. “I'm sorry, but could you please give me some time alone?” he asked at a level just barely audible to the two girls. “I need to think some things through.”

Asuka and Rei looked at each other over the top of Shinji's head. A slight nod from the First Child was echoed by the Second, and they both stood up. “Alright,” said Asuka. “I'll be in my room.”

“As will I,” Rei added.

Outside the lounge room, and out of sight of the gloomy boy, Asuka grabbed the bluenette by the shoulder and whispered, “Misato needs to know about this, so I'm going to call her. Hopefully I can convince her to come home right away.”

“Shall I go and tell Hikari and the others?” Rei quietly asked.

Asuka thought for a moment, before shaking her head. “No, leave that for another day. I don't want to overwhelm him, so let's just take it slow for now.”

“Then I shall go and do my homework.”

With a nod, Asuka let Rei leave then went into the kitchen, where she picked up the phone and fled to her room as quietly as she could.

* * *

Misato sighed as her intercom beeped and held up a hand to her friend. “Let me take this first, then we can continue.” Ritsuko nodded and took a seat, then unfolded her laptop and began to type.

“What is it, Sotomura?” Misato asked.

The slightly distorted voice of her secretary answered.  _“Commander, Pilot Soryu is calling. She says it's very important.”_

“... Alright, put her through.” Releasing the button, the exhausted woman had only a few seconds to try and guess what happened to make Asuka call her at work before the phone rang. “What's the matter, Asuka?” she asked as soon as she picked it up.

“ _I need you to drop everything and come home now,”_ came the whispered reply.

Misato pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it in disbelief. Did one of her surrogate daughters -and a subordinate-  _really_ just try to give  _her_ an order? She was definitely too tired for this. “I'm sorry...  _what?”_ she asked as politely as she could. “And why are you whispering? Is there an intruder?”

A faint snort was Asuka's initial response. _“If it were even possible for that to be the case, I would have called for Section Two, as bad as they are. Look, just get here as soon as you can. Please?”_

“Can't it wait? I'm busy at the moment.”

“ _Whatever Akagi is boring you with is not as important as this.”_

It was a struggle for Misato to keep a straight face while looking at Ritsuko, so she turned her chair around to face the wall. “And just what is so important, Asuka?”

“ _... I can't tell you over the phone,”_ the girl replied, her voice getting even quieter.

Misato palmed her face and grumbled to herself. “So you want me to come home now, for something important,” she eventually said. “Something so critical you can't even say it over a secure line to the Commander of NERV. Today has been a long day, and I'm tired. What are you planning, Asuka?”

There was a soft sigh from the other end of the line, then Asuka said,  _“I want it to be a surprise. If you come home right now and you're not completely bowled over by what I have planned then...”_ There was a humming sound, then a long pause. “ _Then you can fire me.”_

Ritsuko looked up as Misato turned around in her chair and let out a loud  _“What?!”_ She hurriedly waved away the doctor's curiosity, before leaning an elbow on the table and rubbing her forehead. “Asuka, are you sure you know what you're doing? I can't possibly think of anything that could be as amazing as you're trying to paint this.”

“ _I'm positive. Please, Misato, just trust me.”_

Misato let out a low growl. “... Fine. I'll be there in half an hour. Be warned, however. If this is not the greatest thing to happen to me all year, then I  _will_ fire you.” Though she sounded serious, with the threat of the Revenants, she had no intention of actually following through with such a threat.

“ _Great! Thanks, Misato!”_ The excited redhead hung up without waiting for a goodbye.

Misato let the phone fall back into its cradle, then raised the hand that had been holding it to join the other on her face.

“Your birthday isn't until December,” Ritsuko remarked as she closed her laptop. “I wonder what the Second Child has planned.”

Misato groaned through her hands. “She didn't give me anything to go on, and I'm too tired to think. Let's just get this over with so I can go home and get  _that_ over with. You were saying something about SEELE?”

“Oh. Yes,” Ritsuko replied as she stood up. She cleared her throat and said, “For the past month, under your orders, I've been looking into what would be left of their power base. Trying to pinpoint any potential threats to us, such as people who share the same opinion about humanity as the Old Men.”

“I really hope this is good news.”

The brunette scientist shrugged slightly. “I would call it good. Several possible suspects were found, but all of them mysteriously disappeared or died not long after I located them. For example, a German politician who was one of Chairman Keel's highest men in the country was found dead in his home with a note next to him and a gun in his hand. Only  _two days_ after I found his name.”

Misato raised an eyebrow. “Somebody's cleaning house.”

Ritsuko placed the laptop on Misato's desk and turned the screen to face the Commander. An influential American magnate who was killed in a car accident when a truck smashed into him at an intersection. A French senator, who suddenly fell deathly ill and only given a month to live, committed suicide. Several more names scrolled past, along with the cause of death or a note saying that they had disappeared.

“What's strange is that not a single one of SEELE's agents was... removed... until I began searching for them. Somebody is definitely dealing with them, and using the MAGI to do the hard work of finding them.”

Misato looked thoughtful for a moment, before reaching into the pocket of her jacket, hanging over the chair. After a few seconds of digging, she pulled something out and held it up to Ritsuko, who leaned in to see what it was.

A tiny external memory device, smaller than her thumb.

“Kaji?” Ritsuko whispered. She curiously reached out for the item in Misato's hand, but the device instantly disappeared into Misato's fist.

The Commander of NERV grinned. “It's the only thing I can think of. I reckon we should let this continue. Not only does it save us the trouble of trying to neutralise these potential threats, we also don't have to worry about it being traced back to us.”

  
“How can you be so sure?” Ritsuko asked incredulously. “The names are going out  _somewhere_ . What's to stop whoever this is from getting in?”

The grin on Misato's face widened. “If I knew Kaji half as well as I believe I did, then whoever's acting on this information has no idea where the names are coming from. Just that it's imperative to eliminate the targets.”

The blonde woman sighed and picked her laptop up. “Alright, I'll trust you -and Kaji- on this. I'm still going to run a diagnostic just in case though.”

“I knew you would.” Misato let a mighty yawn loose as she got up, and stretched before picking her jacket up. “Right, I'm going to get a cup of coffee and go home. You might want to start looking for a replacement pilot,” she added snarkily before leaving the room.

“Are you sure you don't want Section Two to take you home?” Ritsuko called after the departing woman as she walked out the door, but only got a dismissive wave in response. “...Well, let's just hope she doesn't crash,” she muttered to the bemused secretary.

* * *

“Hey Shinji, you done thinking yet?”

The boy looked up into the face of Asuka, then lowered his head and sighed. “It's only been a few minutes, Asuka.”

“Oh. Right.” She decided against mentioning that it was a bad idea to leave a person in his state alone for very long. “Anyway... you know what you need?” The redhead grabbed Shinji by the shoulders and lifted him to his feet. “A distraction.”

“Distraction?”

“Yep. Put all that thinking off until later. Besides...” Asuka rubbed her stomach, “I'm hungry.”

“O-oh! Sorry-” Shinji paused as Asuka got a strange look on her face.

Sorry. Such a small word, but she would have given up _anything_ to hear it again, despite how angry it used to make her. Its earlier utterances had passed over her head as she attempted to calm the boy down. Now Asuka almost wanted Shinji to say it again, just to prove that he was truly back.

“Are you okay, Asuka?” Shinji's voice cut through her musing and brought her back to see his concerned expression, and she was mildly surprised to feel her heart flutter a little at the look in his eyes.

“I-I'm fine!” she stammered. “A-anyway, I've got a surprise coming for you, but we need dinner ready in less than half an hour.”

“Um...” Shinji scratched his head, and just barely avoided apologising again as he said, “I need a bit more time than that. I don't even know what we have in the fridge.”

“You're in luck!” Asuka pointed a thumb towards her chest and thrust her chin upwards. “Since this is a special occasion that I want to go perfectly, I will graciously lend you my aid.” To Asuka's secret delight, the depressed boy actually gave her a small smile. Her chest now felt like there was a butterfly trapped inside her ribcage. She mentally shook herself and said, “Now come on, we need to get started.”

Shinji yelped slightly as Asuka's hand grabbed his own and began to drag him towards the kitchen. It had been an unconscious move done out of habit, and she prayed that he would be too nervous to say anything.

“Who's coming over?” Shinji asked as he looked through the fridge.

Asuka turned the tap on to wash her hands. “Misato. I told her to come home and to expect a surprise.”

“Oh okay. What's the-” Shinji froze, and the fridge began to beep in complaint at being open for too long.

“You were gonna ask what the surprise was, weren't you." Asuka had to look away to hide her grin. The boy declined to comment, shutting the fridge door a little harder than necessary after taking out several ingredients. She pretended not to notice his red face.

Six months of mental trauma apparently had little, if any, effect on Shinji's culinary skills. Asuka helped out where she could, washing and cutting some vegetables and other minor tasks, but the bulk of the task was handled by the skilled young man next to her. The contents of the pan flew up into the air at one point, to the redhead's surprise, but not a single piece was lost.

Twenty minutes passed rapidly, and the stir fry was soon complete. As soon as the plates were filled and laid out on the table, Shinji was dragged away to Asuka's bedroom while Rei kept a lookout for the return of their foster mother.

“What are we doing in here?” Shinji wondered, taking the time to look around the room.

“Waiting for the right time,” Asuka replied mysteriously. She walked over to the mirror and began to brush her hair, mostly for something to do to keep her hands occupied, as the right was starting to twitch slightly, to her confusion.

“Couldn't I have just waited in my room then?”

Asuka shook her head, letting her hair fly about, and then met Shinji's gaze in the mirror. “That's Rei's bedroom now. Her apartment was destroyed, and Misato decided to take her in.”

“O-oh... okay...” Shinji's face fell, and Asuka sighed internally.

_'Come on, don't tell me you're just going to act like it's perfectly normal to get kicked out of_ two _bedrooms for somebody else!'_

“Wait, Rei isn't staying in this room?” Shinji asked with a frown, his eyes still looking down at the floor. “There are two futons in here.” He looked up, quirking an eyebrow. “Is something wrong with the bed? Did it break?”

_'Well, good. At least he's not just rolling over,'_ Asuka mused. “No, nothing like that,” she said out loud. “It's... well, somebody had to keep an eye on you. Your nightmares tended to get rather nasty if someone wasn't nearby. Misato  _really_ needs all the rest she can get, since she's far too busy most days, and she ordered me to look after you. So you're staying in my room.” 

She couldn't stop the smirk that grew on her face as she watched Shinji's face gradually redden as she revealed the details of their sleeping arrangements.

“W-we're sleeping together?!” Shinji finally squeaked out.

Asuka's cheeks pinked up at the choice of words. “Wh- no! We're just sleeping in the same room! On seperate futons!”

“But... a boy and girl shouldn't sleep in the same bedroom!”

“It was that or listen to you enduring your nightmares.” Asuka leaned in closer to him. “I don't care what people think. I refuse to do nothing while you suffer.”

The redness faded slowly from the boy's face as he thought in silence for a minute. The Second Child had just finished combing her hair when he mumbled, “I'm sorry, Asuka.”

Reeling back slightly as  _that word_ sent a small shiver down her spine, Asuka put the brush back on her dresser, before turning around and asking, “What for now?”

“Um... for you having to be the one to look after me. We've never exactly gotten along, after all...”

Asuka sighed and rubbed her forehead.  _'Great, he still thinks I don't like him.'_ Her face softened as she said, “Don't apologise. I've been looking after you for months now. I'm used to it. Besides,” she added with a smirk. “You've been a perfect excuse for me to not have to go back to school.”

The Third Child's eyebrows rose. “You finally got your wish? I'm sure you've been loving that,” he chuckled. “But won't you have to start going again, now that I'm... awake?”

“Misato said that you are my top priority until you're fully recovered.” It was only a slight twisting of her orders, but it wasn't the right time to explain that the Evangelions were still needed. “Do you _feel_ recovered?”

Shinji almost lied, still embarrassed by their sleeping arrangements, but one look at Asuka's serious expression told him what would happen if she caught him out. “No,” he mumbled. With absolute honesty, he added, “I don't think I'll be okay again for a long time.”

“Then out of the goodness of my heart, I shall allow you to stay in my room,” Asuka replied, internally cheering at Shinji's statement. She had to turn around and pretend to busy herself with something, _anything_ , to hide the elation she felt. “After all, it would be too much work to move Rei in here.”

As Asuka continued to comb her hair, she soon noticed the boy's eyes staring at the back of her head in confusion.

“Uhm, where are your neural clips?” he finally asked.

Before she could answer, a loud and angry voice from elsewhere in the apartment yelled,  _“Asuka Langley-Soryu, get out here!”_

The redhead gulped and made to leave the room, but the sight of a wide-eyed Shinji made her pause for a moment. Knowing that if she didn't show up quickly the surprise would be ruined, Asuka hissed, “I'll have to tell you another time. Stay here, I'll be back soon!”

* * *

As she stepped into the hallway, Asuka was immediately pierced by the laser-like glare of Misato. Rei was standing in the woman's way, preventing her from simply storming into the bedroom. Asuka gently pushed the other girl out of the way, and took her place in front of the tired and disgruntled woman. Rei glanced sidelong at her before moving to sit at the kitchen table. The intensity of the stare increased as Misato folded her arms and said, “Well?”

The Second Child drew herself up and replied, “The surprise is nearly ready, Misato. I just need you to do one little thing first.”

“Asuka, I'm damn well exhausted and not in the mood,” Misato growled. “What is so important that you felt the need to practically order me home?”

“Look, please just trust me for a little longer,” pleaded Asuka as she moved past the woman into the kitchen. “You're about to find out.”

“If I'm not amazed in the next five minutes, I'm cutting your pay for a year.”

Asuka paled slightly as she neared the kitchen table, but got herself under control before turning around.  _That_ was a much more suitable threat than what she had thought of, not to mention easier to carry out considering the current circumstances . “Er, okay. Anyway, please try this stir fry.”

Misato's eyes narrowed as she attempted to discern what the German girl was planning, but a rumble from her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything in a while. She almost fell into the dining chair, and took a moment to lean back and relax before picking up her utensils and digging into the stir fry.

After a few mouthfuls, she said, “This is good. Very good. I haven't had a meal this tasty in a long time. You're getting better at cooking, but you only have four minutes left.”

Asuka sat down across from her, but didn't begin eating. “What if I told you I did barely anything?” she asked with a smirk.

“Then I would assume you got lazy and convinced that Horaki girl to come over.”

“Nope, try again.”

Misato pursed her lips in thought. “Did Rei do this? Maybe she got some of the Ikari cooking talent too.”

“She might have the gift, but no. You're getting warmer though.”

“Then Shinji must have had another cooking memory.” While she had been surprised that the boy could somehow cook while semi-comatose, her portion of that meal had sadly not lived up to his previous creations. The tired woman took another bite. _This_ meal on the other hand certainly tasted a lot like what her surrogate son had made the previous year.

If the girl could grin any wider, the top of her head would have fallen off. “ _So close!_ ”

Misato froze with a piece of chicken halfway to her mouth. Something that had been jumping up and down in the back of her mind since the phone call half an hour ago had finally kicked her in the head. Asuka's almost exuberant attitude, the still-unknown 'surprise', and a meal that could only have been created by one person.

All her tiredness vanished, and Misato's chair fell over with a clatter as she got to her feet. “Where is he?!” she demanded, planting her hands on the table.

“Calm down, he's-”

“Where?!”

  
“Um...”

It was such a quiet sound, but it easily reached both of them. Asuka would never forget the expression on Misato's face as her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She seemed frozen to the spot, almost afraid of turning around in case she had imagined the voice.

“Is... is everything okay out here?” Worried eyes under a mop of dishevelled brown hair peeked out of the doorway to Asuka's room. Misato unfroze, spinning around and accidentally kicking the chair at her feet away. Her hand flew up to her mouth at the sight of the boy as he slowly walked into the kitchen.

“Asuka...” she slowly said. “Please tell me this is real.”

Though Misato couldn't see it, Asuka nodded. “He woke up this afternoon. I'm not really sure what triggered it,” she blatantly lied, sending a 'don't you dare' look at Shinji, but he was too busy focusing on Misato to pay attention.

“Misato... I-... I'm sorry,” Shinji stammered, finally tearing his gaze away after a few seconds. He closed his eyes against the tears threatening to break through and said, “I'm sorry I was so useless.”

A sob escaped the woman's mouth, and Misato stumbled forward, landing on her knees in front of her surrogate son, who was now cringing at the close proximity of someone who he had indirectly killed due to his inaction.

“Oh Shinji...” Misato said with a tearful smile. She reached a hand out and pulled his chin around so she could look into his eyes. If there had been any doubt in her mind, it evaporated upon seeing the life in those blue eyes. “I don't care what happened before. Right now _nothing_ matters except that you've come back to us. To _me_.” As she uttered the last two words, she threw her arms around Shinji and yanked him into a hug.

Shinji stood there dumbly, arms hovering in the air as Misato squeezed him. With an exaggerated sigh, Asuka got up and moved towards the embracing pair, grabbing Shinji's hands and guiding them into returning Misato's hug. Just as the redhead was about to step back, she noticed the twin lines of tears crawling down the boy's cheeks and soaking into the woman's shirt, which brought a suggestion of a smile to  her face.

Nearby, Rei stared at her brother and foster mother. The scene brought a comforting warmth to her chest, and the corners of her mouth tilted upwards. Shinji and Misato were now both weeping openly, and a sob occasionally wracked one or the other's body.

  
After a few minutes, Asuka moved around the table and tapped  Rei on the shoulder. At  the other girl's inquisitive glance, she pointed towards the lounge room, and  Rei nodded. Together, they silently left the kitchen, and the still hugging pair, and sat down on the couch.

“I pray that this will aid Shinji's recovery,” Rei quietly said.

“It will. Misato's got her boy back, but I have a feeling it's still going to take a very long time,” Asuka replied.

Rei slowly nodded. “Sadly, I must agree with you. Based on what little I remember from Lilith's link to his mind, it could well be several years before he is no longer badly affected. But now that he is awake, we can actively work to help him, instead of simply reacting to his nightmares and memories.”

Asuka sighed, glancing back over her shoulder and through the doorway. “When should we tell him about the Revenants?”

“We should leave that for Misato. I believe she will be better able to know when to bring the matter up.”

The two girls fell silent, and Asuka could just barely hear Misato mumbling something to Shinji.

“What did you do to cause him to awaken?” Rei suddenly asked, startling the Second Child.

Asuka remained facing away, mostly to hide the fact that her face was reddening. “N-nothing!” she exclaimed.

“If that is the case, then I shall ask Shinji what he remembers.”

Asuka spun quickly around and glared at Rei. “What? No, don't do that!” Her face was now bright red and she had to remember to keep her voice down.

The bluenette returned the stare for a few seconds, then said, “You know, but are unwilling to tell me.”

“Just... give me some time, okay?” Asuka mumbled. “I'm still not over the shock.”

“Will you be 'over it' by tomorrow night?” Rei inquired. Letting out a low groan, the Second Child grudgingly nodded. “If you cannot bring yourself to answer by then, I shall speak to my brother. For now, I shall go to bed. Goodnight.” She got up and padded towards her room, sparing a glance and a smile at Misato and Shinji as she passed.

“Gee, no pressure, Wondergirl,” Asuka muttered to herself.

* * *

It took fifteen minutes for the tears to stop. Most of the time was filled by Misato mumbling reassurances into Shinji's ear whenever he attempted to apologise. She eventually, and grudgingly, broke the hug, lifting the boy to his feet and guiding him to the table. Upon hearing the scrape of the dining chairs, Asuka rejoined them and they all began to dig into Shinji's stir fry. While it had started to go cold, Misato commented that the taste hadn't diminished at all.

As they ate, Misato paid close attention to the two teenagers. Asuka would constantly glance at Shinji, who never looked up from his plate. It appeared that he was already beginning to sink back into depression, and a worried look was growing on the girl's face.

After dinner, when their foster mother cleared the dishes from the table -taking away Shinji's plate before he could get up- Asuka asked, “So, did I manage to avoid the pay cut?”

Misato rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Yeah, you did. Oh, that reminds me.” Pulling out her mobile phone, she pressed a speed-dial button and called her Sub-Commander. “Rits, it's Misato. Listen, I need to take a few days off work.”

On the edge of Asuka's hearing, she heard a faint _“What?!”_ coming through the earpiece. As Misato began to explain the situation, the girl fixed her gaze on Shinji. His arms were folded around himself and his head was tucked into his chest, and Asuka could see him trembling slightly.

“Hey Shinji, you cold or something?”

His whole body jolted as the Third Child looked up. “N-no, I'm fine,” he stammered. His eyes darted towards the hallway, and Asuka saw something akin to fear in his expression. Although she knew he was lying, Asuka decided not to press him too hard, concerned that he would close up tight if she tried to pry into him.

“You sure?” At Shinji's hesitant nod, Asuka sighed and let the subject drop.

_'I'll have to take it slow,'_ she mused.  _'I can't just up and ask him, 'So what are your nightmares about?' or something like that. Baby steps, Asuka.'_

“Fine,” she relented, leaning back in her chair. “I won't bite though, so if you wanna talk about anything...”

Shinji seemed to consider the offer for half a minute. “Thank you,” he mumbled as he met Asuka's gaze, causing the girl's heart rate to increase slightly.

His eyes. They had always been a weak point for the redhead. Whenever something bad happened and they started to fill up with sadness, Asuka would feel like she had just kicked a puppy. Just the thought of that cobalt stare had been enough to halt her whenever something happened to make her feel angry enough to lash out physically.

When they sparkled on the few occasions Shinji was happy? When he got that gleam in his eye while cooking for his 'family'? That one perfect moment when he would turn around and present another delicious meal to Asuka would always take her breath away, and she always had to hide it beneath a haughty veneer, under empty threats of retribution if the meal was not perfect.

And they were _always_ wonderful. Even when he had been sad or depressed, Shinji still put the same amount of effort into cooking, as if he was attempting to cheer up other people with his food. But she never thanked him. Until n-

“Asuka? Are you okay?”

Asuka blinked, and realised belatedly that she had been staring at nothing for the past few minutes. Misato was still talking on the phone, and Shinji was giving her a worried look.

“Oh. Yeah, I'm probably just tired,” she lamely said, faking a yawn, but smiling inside at the boy's concern. Even after everything he had been through, Shinji still managed to put it aside to worry about somebody else first.

“Phew, that's sorted,” Misato remarked as she put her phone away. “I've got a week off. It's a good thing the adoption process was so quick, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to abuse my sick leave for this.”

“Adoption?” Shinji repeated in confusion.

“Misato adopted you, me, and Wondergirl not long ago,” Asuka explained. “She's now our foster mother.”

The Third Child's eyes widened in shock, and Misato was quick to clarify. “Rei and Asuka agreed to it when I asked them, but since you weren't lucid at the time, I couldn't extend the same offer to you properly. I went ahead with it anyway, but now that you're awake...”

The purple-haired woman walked up besides Shinji and lowered herself to his eye level. The volume of her voice dropped as she said, “Shinji. Ever since you came into my life, you have been like the son I never had. Adopting you simply made it official.”

Tears were starting to leak from her eyes again as Misato kept talking. “But I know that... near the end I practically abandoned you in my search for the truth when you needed me, and I'm so sorry for that. If you don't want me to be your foster mother, I'll arrange for your adoption process to have never happened.”

To Asuka, the silence seemed to stretch out for an eternity as Shinji and Misato stared at each other, and she found herself struggling to keep her face neutral.

The boy twisted in his seat to properly face the woman, and slowly said, “Misato... I really appreciate everything you've done for me, but...” Misato's face visibly fell, so Shinji hurriedly continued. “I need time to think about this.”

Letting out a sigh of what might have been relief, Misato nodded weakly. “Take as much time as you need. Whatever your decision, I will accept it. But nothing will change the fact that I love you like a son.”

Shinji smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but a massive yawn broke out first.

“Well... I guess we're all a bit tired,” Misato remarked. “I suppose we should go to bed now.” She gave Shinji another hug, which the boy quickly returned, before releasing and standing up. “Goodnight, kids.”

As soon as the door to the woman's bedroom slid shut, Asuka stood up and said, “Well, you heard her. Bedtime, Shinji.”

Once again, the fearful look flashed across Shinji's face, but it disappeared just as fast. He nodded and got to his feet, following  Asuka , with a great deal of nervousness, into her bedroom.

Their futons were several feet apart, discreetly moved by Asuka during their chat just before Misato got home. While she wanted to keep the same arrangements, she had a feeling that Shinji would have been too tense to sleep so close to her.

Not to mention that she might accidentally reach out for him during the night. That was going to take some getting used to.

The lights went off as soon as Shinji had burrowed into his futon, facing away from Asuka to her disappointment, until only the top of his head was peeking out. Asuka got into bed as well, forgoing changing into pyjamas while Shinji was already in the room. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light she saw, in the outline of Shinji's body under the covers, that he was almost curled into a foetal position.

Her right hand twitched, almost demanding that it take its usual bedtime place in the boy's left hand. Asuka clenched it tightly, and settled for staring at the back of Shinji's head in the dim light shining through the curtain. Just as she was about to drift off to sleep, an interrupted thought from earlier came back to her mind.

“Shinji.”

There was a slight rustle of bedclothes as the Third Child turned over to face her. “What is it, Asuka?” he softly asked.

“...Thank you for dinner,” Asuka replied, so quietly that even she almost didn't hear it.

Despite the lack of light, she would swear that the corners of his mouth turned upward slightly as Shinji said, “You're welcome.” The boy closed his eyes, sensing that the conversation was already done, but didn't turn back over.

It might have been her imagination, but before her eyes shut and sleep claimed her, Asuka was sure that Shinji's body had unclenched slightly.

* * *

When dawn finally came and a pesky ray of sunlight woke Asuka up, she had to wipe the sleep from her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining things. When it could be confirmed that her eyes were not lying to her, the first thing she did was _not_ panic. She had been grimly anticipating something like this, after all, but she had expected it to at least occur a day or two later.

Shinji's bed was empty.

Her eyes scanned the bedroom. Asuka knew that he was not elsewhere in the apartment, as she hadn't been woken up by her door. Whenever it was opened there was a squeal of metal that would be impossible to sleep through, as its rails needed to be oiled and nobody had gotten around to it. Within a minute or two, she noticed a pair of feet sticking out from the other side of her dresser.

It was an unfortunate fact that words of praise, even from Asuka, could apparently do nothing to hold back the tide of nightmares assaulting the Third Child. Some time after she had fallen asleep, the boy had quietly fumbled his way out of his futon and crawled over to the furthest corner of the room from her, curling his body up into a gap between the dresser and the wall.

This was where she now found Shinji, fast asleep in what looked like an incredibly uncomfortable position. His arms were wrapped around his legs, which were tucked into his chest, and his head was resting sideways on his kneecaps. Asuka's neck twinged in sympathy just looking at him, recalling how she had fallen asleep next to his bed so long ago, before Misato had discovered her and offered a better solution.

Asuka exhaled, blowing a wayward strand of hair out of her face, and moved in close to the boy, calling his name and gently shaking him by the shoulder. Shinji shivered a little as she made contact, but otherwise didn't respond. The redhead settled for carefully dragging him out of the corner and picking him up. Asuka swayed slightly as she stood up, but kept her balance as she carried him to his futon and placed him back under the covers.

With a glance at her alarm clock, which showed that it was just barely five-thirty, Asuka crawled back into her own bed and tried to fall back asleep. When ten minutes passed, full of tossing and turning, she shuffled her futon closer and reached out a hand. It paused over Shinji's own hand for a moment, then drifted up to his upper arm and lightly rested there. Through the thin fabric of his shirt, Asuka felt the muscles relax.

With the boy finally resting somewhat peacefully, Asuka relaxed and let sleep claim her once more.


	20. Chapter 20

“What's that smile all about?”

Rei jumped slightly at Hikari's question and proximity. Usually the class representative walked on ahead as the teenagers walked to school, talking with Kensuke and Toji, but this time the pig-tailed girl seemed to have suddenly materialised at her elbow.

“Excuse me?” Rei asked.

“You're smiling. It hasn't disappeared since we left the apartment building,” Hikari explained. “Did something happen?”

A hand raised to her face confirmed that the other girl was right. Though she had steadily gotten used to visually showing her emotions, this was the first time Rei had found herself smiling without being aware of it. She found herself glad for her habit of walking behind the boys. “Yes, something wonderful,” Rei replied. “But... I am not sure if I should reveal what it was just yet.”

Inquisitiveness began to override politeness as Hikari's eyes widened. “Something wonderful?” she repeated. “Oooh, please tell me!”

Rei hesitated. She had agreed with Asuka that the subject of her brother's awakening should be kept private for the time being, but she was discovering something new. The previous year, it would have been simple to keep anything a secret, such as the details of her creation and her role, but now Rei felt as if she would burst if the information about her brother was kept hidden for too long.

It was a strange sensation for the First Child. Not entirely unwelcome either.

Obviously sensing her turmoil, Hikari backed off slightly. “If it's something private, you certainly don't need to tell me.”

Rei shook her head. “It is not private. Merely... personal,” she clarified. “You, and Kensuke and Toji, will find out eventually. I am simply unsure of when it would be suitable to reveal it.”

While it certainly wasn't the wrong thing to say, it may have been a little unwise. Hikari's eyebrows quickly shot up as her curiosity returned. “Do you think you could guess when you'd be able to tell us?”

The school gate loomed up ahead. As they passed through it, Rei made a decision. “If you promise not to tell anyone else until I say otherwise, then meet me on the roof at lunchtime. Alone, please.”

* * *

The shriek of an unoiled rail tore Asuka from her dozing. Her hand shot back to her side as she sat bolt upright in her futon.

“Sorry,” Misato hissed, wincing apologetically. “But it's past ten in the morning. Time you got up.”

A surprised glance at her clock told Asuka that the woman was telling the truth. She hadn't meant to stay in bed for so long after waking up a couple of hours ago, but the feeling of Shinji nearby had lulled her into an unexpected nap. The girl rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stood up and walked towards the doorway, holding out a hand to stop Misato from coming into the room and waking the still-sleeping boy up.

“Leave him a little longer,” said Asuka. “He had a rough night.”

After a quick and quiet explanation of how he had been sleeping for most of the night, Misato agreed and moved into the kitchen, flicking the kettle on for Asuka before sitting down at the table. Rei was absent, having already left for school.

“So he's still having nightmares, huh?” Misato asked, resting her head on an upraised hand.

Asuka hummed in agreement as she prepared a bowl of cereal. “To be honest, I kind of expected this,” she admitted, sitting down across from her adoptive mother. “Whatever he experienced during Third Impact is not going to go away just because he's lucid.”

“No, but now we can help him much better than we could before.” Misato's face hardened slightly as she added, “By the way, I don't want any mention of the Revenants for a couple of days, at least while Shinji's around.”

Nodding, the redhead replied, “Fine by me. There's something I want to do with him anyway, and it'll keep my mind off of those beasts.”

Misato quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? Shinji's back for one day and you already have plans for him?”

Her tone was slightly teasing, meant only to lift their moods slightly, but it was enough to bring a little colour to Asuka's cheeks. “We need to get him fit again,” the girl said, trying to ignore the tone. “Regardless of whether or not he decides to pilot, he's still really frail right now. Don't you remember how skinny he looked?”

The previous night, while relocating Shinji back to his bed, Asuka had remembered that his body had been unable to properly recover during his catatonia. Although he had been eating somewhat normally and occasionally walking around, it was not enough to keep the Third Child's body in the state it had been during the Angel War.

“Ah, you want to get some muscle back on his bones?”

The kettle boiled. Asuka seized the opportunity to put her back to Misato, and busied herself at the kitchen counter. The woman's comments usually sounded innocent enough, but it was the smirk she added that always gave her words the ability to make Asuka blush. She could make a simple 'How are you today?' sound suggestive with that smirk.

“Okay okay!” Misato relented after a few minutes of Asuka pointedly ignoring her. “Spoilsport...”

Asuka spun around and took a sip of her coffee, acting as if nothing had just happened.

Misato looked towards the other fridge as Pen-Pen stepped out and nodded a greeting, which the avian returned with a wave of a flipper as he went into the bathroom. Once the door closed, Misato slyly said, without looking at Asuka, “So you _don't_ want to eventually be able to bounce coins off his abs?”

A few drops of hot liquid hit the table near Misato's arm, the choking sound from behind her indicating the source, and the woman grinned.

“ _Damnit, Misato!”_ Asuka yelled as soon as she stopped coughing, grabbing some paper towels to wipe off her face and shirt.

* * *

Throughout the day, Rei only managed to keep the smile off her face by concentrating completely on the lessons, though she still found herself glancing at the clock above the blackboard far more often than usual.

When the lunch bell rang, the students began to file out of the class. After giving Toji and Kensuke their lunches, Hikari surprised the boys by walking rapidly away in a different direction with Rei. The athlete eventually shrugged at his friend and they continued on to the cafeteria.

The door to the roof almost slammed against the wall as Hikari pushed it open. After a quick look around to see if any other students were up there, she nodded to Rei, and they both sat down in what little shade there was.

Curious as she was, Hikari still passed the quiet girl her lunch and waited until they were both finished eating before springing the obvious question. “So... what happened?”

Rei leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. After a minute of silence, she let the smile return to her face as she said, “Shinji has awoken.”

It took the class representative a moment to fully understand what was meant by 'awoken', but it quickly clicked as she saw Rei's expression. Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth opened in an 'O' of amazement.

“Are you serious?!” she squeaked out, barely containing her happiness. “Shinji's back to normal?”

The smile turned brittle, and Rei looked away from her friend. “Not... quite,” she softly replied.

“Oh...” Hikari sensed the mood change immediately, and her joy diminished.

The First Child paused before explaining. She knew that as a friend, Hikari deserved to know, but since she was still a civilian there were limits to what could be revealed.

But if she couldn't trust somebody like the class representative, who could she trust?

“He's still okay... right?”

The worried tone in Hikari's voice turned Rei's head back to face her, and the bluenette answered, “Physically, Shinji is alright, but...” She trailed off, unsure of what to say next.

“When Toji, Kensuke and I first saw him after Third Impact, Asuka told us that he experienced something terrible in Instrumentality, which led to his catatonia,” said Hikari.

Rei relaxed slightly at the news that their friends already knew something of Shinji's condition. “It would be more accurate to say that his painful experiences last year were... magnified by Instrumentality,” she clarified. “Shinji suffered greatly, especially in the days before Third Impact. He...” Rei took a deep breath and continued, “He was almost killed by the army invading NERV, and then Misato died protecting him. Asuka was fighting the Evangelions sent to ensure the invader's success, but she was... destroyed by them. Shinji arrived too late to save her, and that was when Third Impact started.”

The explanation was sufficiently vague enough. Though Shinji's friends would likely be supportive if they knew all the details, they did not need to know that he had been the one to control Third Impact.

Not yet at least. Ultimately, it was up to Misato whether or not to tell Hikari, Kensuke and Toji.

“...I see,” Hikari mumbled after a couple of minutes, a downcast look on her face.

“He is lucid now,” Rei said. “That means we can focus on helping him. He is going to need our support in the weeks ahead.”

Hikari's expression changed instantly, from sadness to determination. “Of course. Whatever it takes to help him.”

“For now though, please keep this information to yourself. It has only been one day since his awakening. We do not want him to be overwhelmed while he adjusts.”

The pig-tailed girl nodded and said, “Okay, I won't tell the guys yet.”

“Thank you.”

With that said, the two girls got up and left the roof, heading to the cafeteria for the remainder of the lunch period. Toji and Kensuke gave them questioning looks, but no information on their conversation was forthcoming.

* * *

Misato finally gave Asuka a break after the table was clean. Mostly because the angry girl had to take a shower to wash off the coffee she had coughed up over herself. She spent half an hour under the hot water recovering from her adoptive mother's teasing.

When she finally stepped out of the bathroom,  Asuka was instantly on the alert, but the now-serious expression on Misato's face was enough to relax her.

“So you want be the one to get him back in shape?” Misato asked Asuka as soon as she sat down.

“Of course I'll do it,” Asuka replied. “I don't trust anyone else, and he'll probably feel more comfortable around me than some strange guy who'll be yelling at him in order to 'motivate' him.”

Misato sighed. “I suppose. What do you have in mind?”

Asuka put a hand to her chin in thought, and replied with, “We'll need a swimming pool to ourselves. That as well as somewhere for jogging should be enough for now.”

“Swimming?” Misato frowned. “But Shinji doesn't know how to swim.”

“Damn, I forgot about that,” Asuka muttered, slapping a hand to her face. “Oh well, I'll just have to teach him.”

With her palm covering her eyes,  Asuka didn't spot the twitch of Misato's eyes as she glanced towards the lounge room and back again, nor did she see the growing smirk.

“You're going to teach Shinji how to swim, huh?” Her question raised Asuka's eyebrows as the redhead heard the tone of her voice, and she sighed as Misato continued. “What a cute picture that would be. You, helping Shinji stay afloat in the pool...”

“Misato...”

“Him, eyes closed as he puts his trust in you.”

“Misato!”

“What?” Misato shook her head as Asuka's hands slapped the table. “Well anyway, let's hope Shinji can withstand the sight of you in a skimpy outfit. It'd be rather embarrassing for him if he got a rush of blood to the head because of your bikini.” Her grin grew wider. “If you know what I mean.”

Just as Asuka was about to unleash an angry tirade, there was a muffled choking sound from the direction of the lounge room. Her head swung around and she caught a flash of colour in the doorway milliseconds before it disappeared, accompanied by a loud thud. Misato winced, but didn't move, instead motioning with her head to the surprised girl.

Asuka moved into the lounge room and stood over the recumbent figure, who was rubbing the back of his head. “It hasn't even been a full day and you've already managed to hit your head twice,” she said, reaching out a hand. Shinji was yanked roughly to his feet as soon as he grasped the outstretched hand.

“You okay?” Asuka inquired, to a slow nod from the boy. “Good.”

After Shinji made himself some breakfast -or rather an early lunch as it was close to midday- and sat down at the table, Asuka sat down next to him as Misato asked, “How do _you_ feel about Asuka helping you get back in shape, Shinji?”

“Um... I really don't want to be a bother,” Shinji mumbled.

“Nonsense, she's already offered to donate her time.”

“O-oh, um.” He rubbed the back of his head again, and glanced at Asuka. “I... I guess I'll accept your help then.”

“Great,” Asuka said with a grin. “We'll start tomorrow then, once we find a good spot for jogging.”

Just as she wanted to get up from the table, she saw Shinji's pupils dilate and his face fall in terror filled realisation. "W-wait! I changed my mind!" he cried out.

“Huh?” Misato and Asuka looked at each other in puzzlement for a moment, before Misato asked, “What's the matter?”

The boy started trembling, holding his head tightly in his hands. Misato had to repeat her question twice before he responded. “Please... don't send me out in public,” he mumbled fearfully. “They'll see me.”

Misato gently placed a stabilising hand on his shoulder. “What do you mean? Who will see you?”

“Other people. They'll see me and they'll know what I did.” Shinji began to rock back and forth.

Confusion turned to realisation, and Misato calmly said, “It's okay,” as her other hand went to his other shoulder. “If you don't want to go out in public, then you don't have to. We won't force you to do anything you don't want to.”

“Yeah, we can just use a treadmill,” Asuka added.

Misato nodded. “In fact, to make things easier I'll just ask Ritsuko to section off the pool at NERV and one of the gym rooms nearby for you two.”

Shinji's shaking subsided as the reassuring words sank into his mind. “Thank you,” he softly replied. “And... sorry for making you go to all this effort just for me, though.”

A tiny growl left Asuka's throat, but she swallowed down the irritation. “Don't worry about it,” she said exasperatedly. “We want to help you. If that means pulling strings to get a private pool so you'll be comfortable, then that's what we'll do.”

“But I can't...” Shinji began.

“I know, you can't swim,” Asuka interrupted. “I'm going to teach you.”

Misato opened her mouth, and even before the first word left her lips, Asuka knew what was going to be said purely by the excessively large grin on her face. “Which means you get to see Asuka in a bikini again, Shinji.”

The faces of both teenagers instantly turned red.

“ _Will you stop doing that?!”_ yelled the blushing redhead.

The Commander of NERV simply sat back and laughed.

* * *

A while later, after Shinji was allowed to eat in peace, he left to take a shower. Asuka took the moment to deliver a withering glare at Misato, but it faded upon noticing the sombre expression on the older woman's face. It was only now that she realised how forced some of the laughter had been.

“Sorry,” Misato said. “I probably went a bit overboard.”

Asuka palmed her face. “He's been back for a day and you're already doing... _that!_ ” she muttered through her hand.

“All I wanted was for Shinji to still feel like things are normal! Not like we're walking on eggshells around him!”

The redhead found she had to at least slightly concede that point. If Shinji found out that people were treating him so gingerly, he might get more depressed that he was causing them so much concern.

“Well... tone it down at least!” Asuka finally managed to say. “You teased us more today than you did in an entire week last year.”

“Okay, fine.” Misato held her hands up in surrender. She tactfully decided to temporarily remove herself from the annoyed girl's presence. “I'm... just going to get out of your hair and call Ritsuko.”

A few minutes later, the Supreme Commander of NERV was sprawled out on her permanently-unmade futon with a phone to her ear. “Hey Rits, it's me.”

“ _What's up?”_

Misato heard typing in the background and smiled slightly. Her friend the scientist seemed to always be working while at NERV, even during phone calls. Being the temporary commander certainly wasn't helping her workload. She briefly explained Asuka's plan to the woman, carefully adding in the detail of Shinji not wanting to be seen.

“ _It should be easy enough to do,”_ Ritsuko said after a moment. _“We have_ _a few seperate_ _gym rooms, and the pool area has been rather quiet this month, despite summer approaching. Guess people want to stay away from NERV while they relax, and I can't say I blame them. I'll section off the pool and the room next door for the Children to use for... three hours a day, and see what I can do about keeping foot traffic to a minimum in the nearby corridors during that time.”_

Misato frowned a little. “Three hours might be a bit too long to begin with. I'm not sure how long it'll take Shinji to get his stamina back with Asuka as his 'trainer'.”

“ _I'm sure Asuka, and possibly Rei, wouldn't mind some free time in the pool though. And what about yourself? Don't think I haven't noticed how stressed out you've been getting ever since your promotion. How have you been coping with that?”_ Misato glanced at her wardrobe as Ritsuko kept talking. “ _You should take advantage of this as well, instead of sitting around at home eating chips and watching terrible daytime soaps during your time off.”_

A chuckle escaped from the woman laying on the bed. “I suppose I could come along as well. Shinji's not likely to accept a ride from Section Two any time soon, and I may as well do  _ something _ while I'm there.”

“ _Good.”_ The audio distorted slightly as Ritsuko sighed directly into the receiver. _“I doubt you'll like this suggestion, but we should really take the time to give Shinji a checkup and a psych evaluation while he's here, as soon as possible. It took him six months to wake up from his catatonia. What if... whatever caused it happens again? And that's another thing: what **actually**_ _happened to him?”_

Misato shook her head and sighed. It would take more than a curious scientist to get Shinji to reveal anything and she said as much to Ritsuko, who echoed the sigh and sadly agreed. After getting Misato to agree to at least ask Shinji about the checkup, and a few more minutes of chatting, the phone call ended.

The wardrobe was quietly pulled open, and Misato threw a glance towards her bedroom door. Clothes were moved away from the bottom of the wardrobe, revealing a small refrigerator. She knelt down and opened it, and a hand reached in to curl around something.

“How have I been coping, Rits?” Misato darkly muttered to herself, staring at the familiar label on the beer can. “The same way I coped with everything that happened last year.”

Asuka had praised Misato for not falling back into her old habits and getting more beer to replace what Shinji had thrown out, but the pilots' guardian didn't have the courage to say that it was too late. Now was not the time to indulge, however. That time would come as it always did ever since she had sneaked the mini-fridge into her apartment; right before she went to bed.

The can went back into the fridge, and the clothes were piled back on top of it. Misato was glad that an agreement had been made that all members of the Katsuragi household were solely responsible for their own rooms. It made hiding her shame so much easier when she didn't have to worry about somebody else coming in and tidying up.

Not that _she_ ever made much of an effort.

As Misato left the room, she had a feeling she knew what it would take for Shinji to speak up about his trauma, and it was nothing any trained psychologist in the world could accomplish.

But a certain young girl might be able to.

* * *

When Rei arrived home that afternoon, the first thing she did was direct a significant glance at her fellow pilot before going into her bedroom. A glance that managed to ruin all of Asuka's mental preparation that day and leave her frustrated. All throughout dinner -that was prepared solely by Shinji this time- she felt as though she needed another day to get ready.

After the dishes were cleared away, Misato took Shinji into the lounge room. Asuka watched them leave and idly noted that the woman had seemed to spend most of the day in close proximity to him, usually with a hand on his shoulder or even an arm around him whenever possible.

She had to put aside wondering why, as Rei looked at her before going up the hallway to her small bedroom, and the redhead followed her with a sigh.

The bedroom door was shut behind her, and Asuka turned to face the First Child. They stared at each other for a long time, neither willing to break the silence until Rei eventually looked away.

“If you are still not ready to speak of what happened yesterday-” she began, about to offer a reprieve.

“I kissed him.”

Asuka didn't know why she suddenly decided to blurt it out. All she knew was that she wouldn't have been able to tiptoe around such a thing, but heat still rose to her cheeks as the memory resurfaced. With her arms crossed and a bright red face, Asuka maintained her gaze as the other girl's mouth hung open in surprise while she processed the revelation.

The look of shock on Rei's face almost made it worth the embarrassment. “You... kissed Shinji?”  she finally managed to say after a minute.

“Yeah.” Now that the cat was out of the bag, Asuka found it easier to speak. “He had a memory thing yesterday afternoon. A rather... big one I guess you could say.”

Curiosity was now written all over Rei's face. “Why did a memory prompt you to kiss him?”

Telling somebody else about one of her simultaneously favourite and most hated moments last year was difficult for Asuka, but she eventually managed to stumble through the events that occurred not long before the appearance of the Twelfth Angel.

She still kept the true motivation of the original kiss secret, as well as her reaction to it. Rei seemed to understand that something was still not being said, but to Asuka's relief she apparently decided that it wasn't essential.

“Thank you, Asuka,” Rei said after a minute of silent thought.

“Huh?” The Second Child's head jerked up from where she had been gazing blankly at the floor. “You mean for getting Shinji to wake up?”

Rei nodded. “Yes. It must have been difficult for you, given how  the scenario turned out last year,” she replied, with sympathy evident in her voice.

_'Hah, that's an understatement,'_ Asuka thought with a mental scoff. She rubbed the back of her head. “When he started talking and I realised what he was remembering, I was so close to walking away from him just so I wouldn't have to hear it. It was bad enough the first time.”

“Then I am glad you were strong enough to stay,” Rei said with a small smile.

“You, me, _and_ Misato I bet,” Asuka replied.

“And I must admit,” Rei added as she looked away. “After yesterday's conversation, I spent some time wondering what could have caused such a reaction. Just before I fell asleep, I thought about what happened in the stairwell, and entertained the notion that you had possibly... kissed him, like Misato suggested.” Her face began to turn slightly pink as she finished.

Asuka's own cheeks also reddened again. She was starting to get irritated at the unconscious reaction whenever somebody brought up something like... kissing.

That didn't stop a small part of her from relishing the memories though.

“There is one more thing,” Rei suddenly said just as the redhead was about to leave before her face burnt off from sheer embarrassment. “Um... There is something I must inform you about.”

“What is it?” inquired Asuka over her shoulder as she stood in the doorway.

“Um...”

The chuckle was impossible to stifle. There were always reminders of just how similar Shinji and Rei were. Thankfully not all of them were annoying. Asuka turned around to an almost amusing sight.

The First Child was embarrassed, and completely unable to mask it. “I... may have told someone about Shinji already,” she confessed.

Asuka let out a groan. “Great,” she sarcastically muttered. “Who did you tell?”

“Hikari Horaki. But she promised not to tell anybody else.”

The mounting sense of dread in  Asuka's gut fizzled away. “Oh. That's fine then. Hikari's the class rep, she knows better than to blab to others, especially about NERV stuff.” She exaggeratedly wiped her brow. “I was worried you'd told one of the stooges. You made me think one of them was going to come here and demand to see Shinji.”

“I am sor-”

“Please. Stop right there.” Asuka barely kept a sigh down. They were _so_ alike. But at least apologies from this girl didn't make her feel funny. Merely annoyed. “No real harm's been done. Now let's go join Shinji and Misato. Wonder if she's still hugging him...”

She was.

And she was smiling widely.

Shinji was almost tucked into the side of Misato, her arm still keeping him close. He blinked sleepily at Asuka when she flopped down on the couch next to him, and embarrassment at his current position flickered across his face for a moment.  She smirked at his reaction to her presence as she reached for the television remote. Misato complained ineffectually, but Asuka paid no attention as she began to channel surf, eventually settling for a movie that had just started.

“Got some good news, girls,” Misato announced a short while later, as the Katsuragi household watched television together. She looked down at Shinji. “Do you want to tell them or shall I?”

Nothing but an incoherent mumble left the boy's lips in response. The three females all looked at him, and smiled.

Shinji was sound asleep.

“Guess I'll have to say it then,” said Misato, mock-sarcastically. “Despite me saying several times that he shouldn't do it just to please me, Shinji doesn't want to upset things by getting his adoption nullified.”

Rei's face lit up a little. “He agreed to remain your foster son?” At a nod from Misato, a soft smile graced her countenance. “That is wonderful news.”

Rei was the first to go to bed, leaving halfway through the movie with an almost inaudible “Good night” to the others. When the movie ended, Misato turned the television off and suggested that it was time for them to do the same. She waited outside Asuka's room while carrying Shinji as the Second Child got changed, then brought him and tucked the boy into his futon.

Once again, Asuka fell asleep staring at Shinji's face. He appeared to be resting peacefully for once. Perhaps the nightmares had been kept at bay this night by the joint efforts of Misato's embrace and Asuka's presence.

It was just a shame that her own dreams were not as kind.

* * *

“Asuka? Asuka, wake up!”

She shot up out of bed, her forehead colliding with Shinji's jaw and sending her falling back onto her pillow as the boy reeled back, rubbing his chin.

“ _Gottverdammt!”_ Asuka angrily swore as she brought a hand up to her forehead. “What did you do that for?!”

To his credit, Shinji managed to avoid automatically apologising, and instead mumbled, “You were... moaning and thrashing about, like you were having a nightmare.”

The hand on her forehead twitched as Asuka's eyes widened.  _'Oh. I was, too...'_ she thought as her mind woke up fully.

As if punishing her for avoiding them for so long, Asuka's bad dreams had returned with a vengeance. She had spent the night feeling her body being slowly torn apart once more while Unit-02 lay dead. This time, however, it was as if the white demons had decided to prolong her suffering even longer. Every bite and tear felt like it lasted hours. Each fresh bolt of agony stayed for what seemed like years.

Under the blanket of her futon, Asuka unconsciously hugged herself and shivered, and the old wounds in her right arm and left eye twinged a little.

“Are you okay?” Shinji's worried voice made itself known as he inched closer.

“I'm _fine!”_ Asuka snapped, much harsher than she intended. She roughly shook her head and said, “Sorry,” just as the same word was about to leave the shocked boy's mouth. “Yeah, it was a nightmare.”

Guilt and anger fought for control of the boy's features. When Asuka  stared at him, silently pressing him on his reaction, Shinji looked away and muttered, “You... you don't deserve nightmares.”

“And  _ you _ do?”

Though his head didn't move, Shinji's eyes darted in her direction for a moment. “...Much more than you, Asuka,” he quietly said.

Asuka found herself unsure of what to say in response. There were still questions that the boy needed to answer, and she sorely wanted to know just what it was that haunted Shinji at night, but it still felt too soon to pry.

Her clock earned a growl as she glanced at it and saw that it was only five o'clock. “Well,” she sighed as she sat up. “I doubt I'm going be able to get back to sleep now, and it wouldn't be for very long anyway.”

Shinji nodded. “Yeah, I woke up a few minutes ago, drank some water, and came back in here to see you moving about. I don't particularly feel like going to sleep again either.”

The two teenagers looked at each other for a moment, both trying to decide what to do, until an idea came to Asuka. “Let's go make breakfast then.”

“This early in the morning?”

“Yep. Let's get our minds off this subject.” Asuka's face split into a hopeful grin. “Feel like teaching me how to properly cook one of your breakfast meals?”

Shinji returned the smile with one of his own and a nod, and the two Children headed into the kitchen.

An hour later, Misato awoke and was led by her own nose into the kitchen, following a heavenly aroma, where she sat down at the table in front of the biggest pile of pancakes she had ever seen. As she sat there, too stunned by the sight and smell to act, Asuka loaded some of them onto a plate for the woman. The sound of the plate landing on the table in front of her broke Misato out of her daze, and she immediately got down to business with knife and fork.

Shortly afterwards, Rei also walked into the kitchen. Asuka looked up to greet her, but a sudden realisation made her curse in German. “ _Scheiße._ Sorry, First.”

“Huh?” Shinji turned around. “O-oh! I'm sorry, Rei! We got so into making breakfast that I forgot about your vegetarianism. These have eggs in them,” he added apologetically.

“That's vegans, dummy!” Asuka gently scolded. “But I'm pretty sure she still doesn't like eggs.”

“That is correct,”  Rei replied. “But there is no need to feel sorry about it.” She went towards the cupboard to fetch a bowl, but found her eye drawn back to the stack of pancakes as the scent wafted around her.

The two teenagers had spent the last hour taking it in turns to make the pancakes. Shinji had added apple and cinnamon to his, while Asuka indulged her sweet tooth and put chocolate in hers. It had taken the largest plate in the house to be able to hold the result of their combined efforts, and the redhead made a note that they needed to go shopping again soon.

Asuka saw Rei's reaction and smirked. “Hah, looks like you want some anyway. Can't say I blame you. Shinji made half of them, and his are damn tasty,” she remarked, patting her stomach and sighing contentedly.

Rei stared at the pancakes. While she had not gone so far as to be completely vegan, she had made an effort to also exclude eggs from her diet as the sight of them made her queasy, until one day when Hikari accidentally used some in one of her bentos for her friends. The class representative had apologised for the mistake, but not before Rei had eaten most of it. After a bit of thought, the First Child had finished the rest of her lunch, and asked Hikari not to worry.

Some discussion, and a bit of careful experimentation, resulted in Rei modifying her vegetarianism somewhat. She allowed herself to enjoy meals that were created with eggs, such as a piece of cake, but still refrained from eating them whole.

Pancakes were new to her though.

“Please don't feel like you have to eat them just because we made them.”

Shinji's voice brought Rei's attention away from the stacks on the table to the slightly worried expression on her brother's face, and she made a decision.

Asuka raised an eyebrow as the other girl put back the bowl she was holding and sat down at the table. At a nod from Rei she placed two pancakes, one of each type, on a plate and passed it along with the condiments towards her, whereupon Misato immediately complained about not being able to reach them through a mouthful of food. The other members of the Katsuragi household all stared at the First Child as she picked up her cutlery.

Unaware of the attention upon her, Rei slowly drew her knife across part of the chocolate pancake first, and lifted the morsel to her mouth.

“This is... wonderful,” Rei finally commented after a few seconds of chewing, and Shinji let out the breath he had been unconsciously holding. It was only three words, but the praise from his sister felt better than anything he could think of.

When Misato's appetite was finally sated, she wiped her mouth with a napkin and told the teenagers to get ready to leave. As they filed out of the kitchen, she eyed the much smaller pancake stack.

_'Maybe one more for the road...'_

* * *

Shinji's bright mood would not be allowed to last for even a few hours. When faced with the front door, he immediately seized up and pressed his back against the opposite wall when it hissed open, revealing the outside world.

Seeing this, Asuka attempted to reassure the shaking boy, while Misato moved away and discreetly made a call to the Section Two detail assigned to her building, ordering them to stay out of sight of the path the group was going to take. It took several minutes of patient talking, plus a personal guarantee from Misato that she would ensure nobody would see him, before Shinji finally stepped outside.

He made it all the way to the parking lot and into the blue Renault Alpine before the worry returned. He sank as low into the back seat as he could manage as Misato drove off, staring fearfully up at the window next to him as if he expected someone to smash through it. Only when the car reached the darkness of NERV's tunnels did he manage to relax, but he still remained low in the seat as the car train passed the view of the Geofront.

Thanks to orders coming from the Commander's office backed by the planning ability of the MAGI, the passages were kept clear as Misato led the way to the elevator they would take down to the level where NERV had the gyms and pool. When the elevator began to descend, Shinji was finally able to relax.

Until the doors opened to the sight of a woman in a labcoat.

“...Hello,” the woman greeted them, mildly confused at the reactions of the elevator's occupants. Both Misato and Asuka had almost leapt forward to cover Shinji the moment another person had appeared, anxious to keep attention away from him.  Asuka only slightly relaxed upon identifying the newcomer. Shinji himself was now cowering behind his adoptive mother, but his head poked out slightly when he realised who the voice belonged to.

“Was that really necessary, Rits?” sighed Misato, placing a calming hand on Shinji's shoulder as the group stepped out of the elevator.

“I'm sorry, but something's come up,” Ritsuko answered, staring directly at the boy.

“Something?” Misato's voice hardened. She spared a glance downward before carefully choosing her next words. “Is it a... you know...?”

“Huh?”

Ritsuko shook her head. “No, not one of those , thankfully .” 

The two female pilots relaxed slightly, thankful that they weren't about to fight another Revenant, especially so soon after the previous one. Nobody noticed the confused expression on Shinji's face as he tried to make sense of what was just said.

“It's actually something concerning Shinji,” Ritsuko continued.

Tensing up again, Asuka stepped slightly back in front of the Third Child and said, “We've already got plans to help him. Whatever it is, go deal with it yourself.”

Ritsuko raised her hands placatingly and replied, “I wish I could, but this is out of my hands. I spoke with NERV's chief medical officer about getting Shinji checked out. Unfortunately, he flexed his doctor muscles and basically _ordered_ me to bring him in immediately.”

Puzzlement crossed Asuka's face, and she turned to Misato. “...Can they do that?” she wondered out loud.

“Afraid so,” Misato replied exasperatedly. “A military doctor has the power to order even a general or admiral to step down, if they can prove that it's for that person's medical benefit. I guess you could call it a safeguard against someone in a position of power killing themselves through overwork, or even becoming mentally ill and endangering the soldiers under their command through his orders. _Non compos mentis._ ”

“'Not of sound mind',”  Ritsuko translated for the benefit of the others.

The redhead ground her teeth in frustration. “Fine,” she muttered, turning to face the Sub-Commander with crossed arms. “But it better damn well not be _you_ doing the checkup, because-”

“Settle down please, Asuka,” Ritsuko interrupted. “While I will be taking Shinji to get checked out, you'll be happy to know that I won't be anywhere near him during the examination.”

While Asuka didn't like the idea of this woman in the same _area code_ as Shinji, she sighed and replied with a simple, “Good.”

With a glance at the time on her PDA, Ritsuko said, “In the meantime, may I suggest the rest of you head to the pool now? Your free block of time starts soon, and it would be a shame to waste it after all the effort I made to get the MAGI to ensure that area remains empty.”

Before Asuka could protest, Misato clapped a hand on her shoulder and not-so-gently pushed her along, throwing words of thanks over her shoulder and using her other hand to wave back at her Sub-Commander and the nonplussed Third Child. Rei trailed silently behind after exchanging a farewell nod with them.

“Did... you really arrange for an entire section of NERV to be empty?” Shinji asked once he and Ritsuko began to move.

“Yes. Misato told me yesterday that you've developed a fear of people. The MAGI are now keeping personnel away from you, in case you haven't noticed. A little something we have for whenever something top-secret or hazardous needs to be transported through the place. Until you feel that you can handle it, anywhere you go in NERV will be sealed off from... unwanted visitors.”

“And you're doing all this just because I don't want to be seen?” Shinji asked incredulously as he looked around at the doors they passed. Each one was shut, with a pulsing red light above it indicating that it was locked.

Ritsuko nodded, and Shinji asked another question that had been on his mind for the last few minutes. “This doctor you're taking me to... does he know who I am?”

“I told him as little as possible,” the scientist said reassuringly. “He knows about your... strange waking coma, but not who you are. It's up to you whether or not he finds out more.”

“I still find it hard to believe a doctor could order a superior officer to step down.”

“Yes, it's a bit of a strange thing. I just wish we could have pulled that card on your father before the world ended.” Ritsuko chuckled humourlessly, but stopped walking after a few seconds when she realised that Shinji was no longer next to her. Looking backwards, Ritsuko saw him standing a few meters away, glaring at her with fists clenched.

“No you don't. You  _ helped _ my father,” he hissed angrily, practically spitting  his words . The shocked scientist found herself almost backing away from the sheer venom in the Third Child's voice. “You knew what he was planning and you still went along with it! Just because you wanted him to  _ love _ you.”

“H-how do you know that?!” Ritsuko stammered.

“Third Impact showed me many things.” Shinji raised a hand and tapped the side of his head with a finger. “It's all still in here, as much as I wish most of it wasn't. Misato and Kaji in college, my mother and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki talking about Evangelion... My father shooting you after your attempt to sabotage the MAGI.”

The PDA dropped out of Ritsuko's lifeless fingers as her mind raced back to her final moments. Caspar, the part of MAGI representing Naoko Akagi as a woman, rejecting the self-destruct order.

“ _Mother, how could you chose your lover over me?!”_

Gendo's final words to her.

“ _The truth is...”_

“ _Liar.”_

The pain of the bullet ripping through her chest, knocking her off the platform into the pool of LCL. She barely heard the boy continue to speak, but one thing came through clearly.

“The truth is... he never loved you.”

Ritsuko fell to her knees. Out of the corner of a blurry eye, she saw Shinji pick up her fallen PDA and examine the map she had left on the screen. He gently pressed it back into her hands before setting off down the corridor. Just before he turned the corner, the stunned woman heard him say one last thing.

“But despite everything... I'm sorry, Doctor Akagi, for everything my father put you through.”

* * *

The water churned around the girl as she completed another lap. Despite her speed, the blue-haired teen she was sharing the pool with remained stubbornly close. The thought only spurred Asuka on, driving her to push her body to the limit. She had shot off to a massive lead at the start, but Rei had steadily eaten up the gap as the race progressed. The near-decade of intense training she had under her belt was a major part of her lead, but as Asuka kicked off the wall for the final stretch, she managed to glimpse a disturbing sight through the spray of the water. If she could, the redhead would be loudly growling through her teeth.

The First Child was now almost neck and neck with her.

NERV had spared no expense when building the physical fitness portions of the Geofront. When she had first heard about the pool the previous year, Asuka had grumpily expected it to be a mere twenty-five meters at best. Stepping through the door and seeing an Olympic-sized body of water had both shocked and delighted her.

Back on dry land, Misato stood at the end of the pool the two girls were swimming towards for the last time. It had been her idea to get the teenagers into the pool for a friendly competition, after they had been waiting at the pool for half an hour with no sign of Shinji or Ritsuko. The Commander of NERV was now holding the controller for the timer board hanging on the wall nearby, and idly tapping it against her leg as she stared at the racers. While Misato was very pointedly _not_ cheering specifically for either one, she _was_ encouraging them both.

After all, a parent should never play favourites with their children.

Despite anticipating it, the woman almost thought there was going to be another Revenant attack when the room's siren sounded as both girls touched the wall. After a second of deliberation, the MAGI flashed the results of the race on the board.

**LANE 1: 2:23:44**

**LANE 2: 2:23:38**

“Holy crap,” Asuka remarked, too surprised by the close times to begin exulting over her victory. “That is way too close.”

“You would have easily won if this had been a shorter race,” Rei replied.

“Indeed,” Misato added, tapping at the controller to change the display on the board. “Asuka, that final stretch was definitely your slowest. You have good speed, but Rei has plenty of endurance. Her times were much more consistent; barely a half-second difference between them.”

“I haven't had a good swim in a long time. That's my excuse.” Asuka turned her head away in mock annoyance, which allowed her to spot the newcomer to the pool area. She tapped Misato's arm to get her attention before pointing at the figure stretched out on the deckchair.

Misato walked over to the second chair as the two pilots began their cooldown exercises, plopping down in it and staring at the woman who was laying down with an arm over her face. “When did you get here?”

“Just in time to get scared by that damn siren,” Ritsuko muttered. “Why is that even a thing that happens here?”

“No idea. Anyway, how's Shinji?”

“I don't know.” Before Misato could voice her concern,  Ritsuko slowly sat up and clarified. “He tore a strip out of me when the topic of his father came up, and then went on to the doctor without me. Only reason I know he made it there was because I checked his location just before coming here.”

Misato's eyebrows raised in surprise. “He did what?”

“Shinji knows things that he shouldn't,” Ritsuko replied, taking her glasses off and rubbing her eyes. “He mentioned something that happened just before Third Impact. Something that would have been impossible for him to have witnessed.”

“And that was...?”

The sub-commander snorted. “Oh, nothing big. Just my death at the hands of the man I thought I loved.”

* * *

The First and Second Children finished their cooldown exercises and dragged themselves onto dry land.

“Why is she here without Shinji?” Asuka wondered as she dried off her face, sitting on the edge of the pool and dangling her legs in the water while looking over her shoulder at the two commanders.

“He must still be getting examined,”  Rei replied. “There does not seem to be any problems yet, otherwise she would have made her presence known immediately.”

The redhead simply grumbled in response. So far, she was not very happy with this day. Plans had been altered almost as soon as they had arrived, without bothering to ask her first.

It was really rather irritating.

She tried to put it out of her mind by eavesdropping on what her superiors were saying, but only caught something about a self-destruct system. Fortunately it did not sound like it was being mentioned as something they were planning on using any time soon. When it looked like they had finished, she walked over to them and inquired about food.

“Well what's the point of being the boss if we can't get meals brought to us?” Misato asked before contacting the kitchen and requesting an early lunch be brought to the pool. Meanwhile Ritsuko made sure that the lockout system would allow access to whoever brought them their food.

When the door hissed open a short time later, everybody looked up expecting to see food, but the person that walked in was a much more welcome sight.

“Um... hi.”

“Shinji!”

Both Misato and Asuka looked at each other after calling the boy's name at exactly the same time. The Second Child broke the stare first, missing the grin from her foster mother in her attempt to hide her slightly red face. She hadn't intended to sound so... overjoyed to see the boy again. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen him in a week.

At a word from Misato, the women got up and moved towards a table in preparation for the coming meal. A red-faced Shinji gave a weak wave of an arm as he reached them, before taking a seat on the same side of the table as the other teenagers, his blush only growing as he got closer to the bikini-clad girls.

“Were there any problems with the examination?” Rei inquired from the other side of the redhead.

“N-not really,” Shinji replied a little shakily, trying his best not to be distracted by the close proximity of Asuka, who had sneaked slightly closer as soon as he sat down. “The doctor just reiterated that I need to get back into shape. He said he'd forward the details to you, Doctor Akagi.” Asuka was the only one that caught the very slight shudder as he addressed the scientist.

Ritsuko took out her PDA, noting the flashing message icon right away. While the doctor had used quite a lot of words in the email, there was not much actual substance. One part near the end, however, caught her eye.

“ _Patient refused to answer any questions about his mental state. Psych evaluation currently impossible.”_

She sighed, and gently prodded Misato when she saw that the teenagers were now talking to each other. The Commander gave her a low sound of acknowledgement when Ritsuko showed her the message.

The door hissed open again a few minutes later, bringing food to satisfy the faint grumblings of several stomachs. Asuka grabbed as much as she could from the serving cart, while Rei and Shinji were much more sedate in their acquisitions. As all three came back to the table and began to eat, Ritsuko and Misato stood up and moved away, ostensibly to speak to the person who had brought the trolley in.

When the server left the room, leaving the cart behind to be collected later, Ritsuko turned her head slightly towards Misato and whispered, “What are we going to do? If he's not going to talk...”

“Right now, there's not much we  _ can _ do besides be patient,” Misato muttered in reply. “He's only been lucid for a  couple days, after all. I know you want to find out everything you can about his condition, but pressure will just make him clam up even more.”

Ritsuko glanced over her shoulder at the back of Shinji's head, and Misato followed her gaze. Asuka was almost leaning on the boy with how close she was sitting, talking about the race she won. Shinji said something that the commanders didn't catch, but they could see the effect it had on Asuka. Less than a year ago, she would have preened and scoffed because _of_ _course_ she won. Now, to Ritsuko's surprise, the redhead blushed slightly and stammered her thanks before pretending to be immensely interested with the contents of her plate.

Next to her, Misato's mouth widened into a massive grin. “Even if it's not much, at least some good has come of this. Asuka's stopped forcing people away from her, and lost most of that terrible obsession with being the absolute best.”

“True, but now she seems to be channelling that obsession into Shinji. He should have been brought here the moment he woke up,” replied Ritsuko disapprovingly. “For all we know it might be too late for scans to pick up what was wrong with him.”

“You just had to ruin the mood, didn't you.”

“I'm a scientist. That's my excuse.”

With a good-natured sigh, Misato returned to the table, snagging a couple of sandwiches along the way.

* * *

Asuka stared at the closed door leading into the male washroom. “Move your butt, slowpoke!” she yelled, hammering on the door with a fist. “We're not going home until you've had at least _some_ time in the pool today!”

A worried and slightly muffled voice answered, “Do I have to go out like this?”

“Hey, you're lucky Misato decided to be nice and give you board shorts.” Asuka sighed. “You can keep your top on if you want, just be quick about it. We've only got an hour left.”

When the door finally opened half a minute later, she felt the faintest twinge of disappointment that Shinji had taken her suggestion and hadn't removed his shirt, before remembering just what happened to white clothing when wet. Asuka had to step back slightly, as Shinji was looking at the ground and almost walked into her. His head shot up, but she immediately raised a warning finger to stop the incoming apology. Shinji hesitantly nodded, and earned an approving grin from the girl.

Glad that the boy was finally starting to understand, Asuka turned and headed for the pool. A glance behind her showed that Shinji seemed to be trying his hardest to look anywhere but at her. She briefly considered swaying her hips, but decided to take pity on him by quickly diving into the pool as soon as she reached it, moving to stand on the bottom of the pool at a point where she could only be clearly seen from the shoulders up.

“Come on, Shinji,” she called to him as he hovered at the edge of the pool. “Even you should know that jumping in is the easiest way to deal with the temperature.”

“W-what are we going to do today?” Shinji nervously asked.

“There's not enough time left today to really get into learning to swim,” Asuka replied, “so I'll just take you through how to float.”

Seemingly reassured at learning there would be no actual swimming, Shinji slowly sat down on the edge, dangling his legs in the pool. Asuka groaned internally at his hesitation, but knew that the boy was doing his best to try and overcome a fear.

“Is everything alright?” Rei asked as she sedately swam to a halt next to Asuka.

“He's getting cold feet,” the redhead explained.

“I just don't trust myself to do it right!” exclaimed Shinji. “What if I start drowning?”

Asuka stared at him for a moment, before indicating herself and the other girl. “That's what we're here for, dummy. If something goes wrong, we'll be able to help you.”

“If you cannot trust yourself,” Rei added, “then trust us. We will be here to help. We have protected each other while fighting Angels; surely a swimming lesson is much easier.” Shinji still seemed hesitant, so she continued, with a small yet hopeful smile. “I would like to swim with you someday, Shinji, so please try.”

It was the smile that did it. The moment Shinji saw the upward tilt of his sister's mouth, his eyes lit up and his back straightened. In one swift movement, he pushed himself off the edge and into the pool.

A tiny jolt of fear went through Asuka's body when Shinji's head went under the water, but he quickly resurfaced.

“Good work, Shinji,” she congratulated him once he wiped his eyes clear. “You've just taken your first step to conquering your fear. How do you feel?”

“C-c-cold!” was the boy's response through chattering teeth. “E-even uncharged LCL wasn't t-this bad!”

“Then let's get you moving around a bit.”

The next ten minutes were spent encouraging Shinji into walking through the water and getting him warmed up. Asuka briefly considered suggesting that he place a hand on her shoulder for support and trust, but decided against it with a mild mental curse against the Japanese sense of personal space.

Unfortunately for Shinji, physical contact was soon necessary. Once he looked relatively comfortable in the water, it was time to start teaching him to float. Asuka stood slightly behind him and gently coaxed him into the correct position, placing a hand under his back for support. He instinctively tried to raise his head a few times, but he was gently reminded to move as little as possible. With his sister also nearby, Shinji found the confidence to rely on the two girls, and his eyes closed as his body slowly became parallel with the surface of the pool.

“The important thing now is to stay relaxed,” Asuka said. “Remember, we're helping you. With both of us here you'd have to actually _try_ to get into strife.”

Shinji opened his eyes and gave her a smile. “Thank you, Asuka.”

The Second Child's face pinked slightly. “Um... you're welcome. A-anyway... until you get some of your lost weight back, you might find it a little hard to stay like this. Fat floats, and you don't exactly have much of it right now.”

“Well, I could always make some desserts for the next few nights,” suggested Shinji.

“Oooh, like what?” As she spoke, Asuka began to stealthily move the hand supporting his back, slowly letting him go. Shinji seemed to not notice, and his gaze unfocused as he began listing possible desserts and what some of them were made of.

“Do you have any suggestions?” he eventually asked, turning his gaze back to Asuka. “If you can find any ingredients we're missing, and a recipe, maybe I can learn to cook a German dessert or two, like _Baumkuchen._ ”

The redhead exaggeratedly ran a hand through her hair. “I'd be disappointed if you didn't know _Baumkuchen_ , you tried to use that word to sync with Unit-02 after all. Hmm... do you know what a _Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte_ is?”

Shinji's brow furrowed. “A schwartz...” His effort to say the strange word failed at the first syllable and he sighed. “Okay, I honestly can't tell if you're just making stuff up because I don't know German.”

Asuka crossed her arms and glared at him, pretending to get annoyed. “Would I do that to you?” It was a struggle to stop herself from smiling, as she _had_ briefly considered putting random German words together to see if the poor boy would notice. The language certainly allowed for some ridiculously long yet correct words.

“Um...”

“Rhetorical question! I think I'm going to have to start teaching you my language,” Asuka said as she threw her hands up in mock despair.

To her amusement, Shinji still seemed entirely unaware that he was now floating completely on his own despite seeing both of Asuka's hands.

It was just a shame that Misato had to come along and spoil everything. “Hey Shinji, you're doing pretty good on your own there!”

“Huh?”

With his attention drawn to the fact that Asuka was no longer helping him float, Shinji floundered, but managed to return his body to a vertical position.

“Damnit, I was trying to see how long he could stay like that, Misato!” Asuka loudly complained at the now contrite commander.

“Whoops! Sorry!”

“He understands what to do now,” Rei interjected. “It will be much easier for him to float unaided.”

Her statement rang true. The rest of the hour was spent helping Shinji refine his new skill, to the point where he no longer needed assistance to begin the float. When the time came to get out of the pool, he almost seemed disappointed. After drying off and changing back into their regular clothes, the members of the Katsuragi household left NERV and headed back home.

“Thank you for your help today,” Shinji said to the girls as they sat around the dining table that evening. A _Baumkuchen_ had been bought on the way home, and now everybody was enjoying a piece. Asuka loftily claimed that Shinji could make a better one in his sleep, but declared it satisfactory. Even Pen-Pen had shown up, curious as to what was being made, and was now polishing off a portion.

“You are welcome, Shinji,” replied Rei.

Asuka echoed her, adding, “Maybe tomorrow I'll show you the Dead Man's Float.”

Shinji almost choked on his mouthful of cake.


	21. Chapter 21

It took several days of patient tutoring before Shinji felt comfortable enough to start swimming, Even then, he refused to go past the point where he could no longer stand on the bottom of the pool with his head above water. But under the careful eye of Asuka, by the end of the first week he was able to somewhat comfortably swim from one side of the shallow end to the other. Despite looking like he had barely managed it, Asuka still congratulated him. The smile Shinji gave her in return made it all worthwhile to her.

Asuka stopped 'accidentally' teasing the poor boy the next day. While it was nice for her ego to know that Shinji still looked, it sometimes made her want to look back. And wish he hadn't decided to wear shorts in the pool.

It didn't come as much of a surprise when Shinji decided to take back the laundry duties, which led to one of the reddest faces Asuka had ever seen on the Third Child the first time she dropped both her bikini and Misato's on top of the pile he was taking to the washing machine.

But even with the 'distractions' provided, Shinji's life was evidently not going to return to normal any time soon. It had not gone unnoticed by Asuka that the boy's behaviour had been slowly creeping back towards despondency as the nightmares struck at him with depressing regularity. It was clear to her that he was not getting much sleep but she felt far too embarrassed, not to mention afraid, to suggest the method she had discovered for protecting Shinji from his dreams.

This was not helped by what happened one morning on their way to NERV. Shinji had hesitantly sat up in his seat to observe Tokyo-3 as it passed by the car window, but when Misato had to stop at a red light, he surprised the other occupants of the car by suddenly gasping and almost diving back down. Asuka was unable to work out who or what he had seen, but it had left Shinji cowering with his head in his hands, as if he had just been struck in the temple, for the rest of the journey. He refused to speak of what had occurred, and remained almost completely silent for the rest of the day.

Back at home, and out of earshot of the boy, Rei brought up something that had slipped their memories, but might aid in cheering up him: Shinji's friends.

Asuka was still hesitant to bring them in, but Misato insisted that having his two schoolmates back in his life would make Shinji feel better, stating that support was a key component in friendship. There was much grumbling and complaining on the Second Child's part about the 'Stooges', but she eventually acquiesced. Rei passed a message on to Hikari, and Asuka now found herself staring down the two male teenagers on the roof of the high school, with Rei and Hikari standing off to the side.

Her presence had been explained away by the pretence of delivering some paperwork from Misato to the school principal, and deciding to wait until after lunch before leaving so that she could 'catch up' with her friends. She dodged any questions asked of her in the halls with two words: NERV business.

“Before I tell you why I brought you up here,” Asuka began, “I first want your oaths that you won't blab about this to _anybody_. Understand?”

Toji and Kensuke raised an eyebrow at each other. “This NERV stuff, Soryu?” the jock asked.

“No way, it's probably about Shinji. He's the only thing she'd get so cautious about,” Kensuke said, before withering under the glare thrown his way.

“Tell anyone, and I'll bring the wrath of NERV down on your stooge heads,” Asuka said threateningly, and the two male teens held their hands up in placation.

“It is about Shinji, but it is not bad news,” Rei interjected before an argument could start.

“Alright, alright,” Toji replied, patting the air in front of him. “Anything for the Shin-man.”

“Good.” Asuka took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. “Shinji's awake,” she said without fanfare.

It took several long seconds for Toji and Kensuke to understand what she meant. To her surprise, the athletic boy worked it out first. “He's back to normal? Great, let's go see him after school!”

While Kensuke added his own cheerful response, only Rei noticed Hikari wincing as she remembered making the same mistake about Shinji's condition.

“Hold on there,” Asuka ordered. The boys immediately quieted upon seeing the seriousness of her expression, despite the good news. “Yeah, he's lucid... but...” She growled, unable to work out how best to explain without giving too much away.

“Please, allow me, Asuka,” Rei cut in. After a defeated wave from the redhead, she proceeded to tell Toji and Kensuke the same edited details that Hikari already knew.

Toji let out a low whistle. “Damn,” he whispered. “Is there anything we can do for him?”

“That's kind of why we're telling you now,” Asuka replied. “For the last week or so Shinji's really only been around Rei, Misato and I. He's okay with us, but afraid of other people now, hiding in his seat whenever we're in the car. Akagi's even had to set a system up to keep personnel well away from him while we're at NERV.”

“As his friends, we hope you can help remove some of that fear,” Rei added.

“Of course we'll help!” Kensuke exclaimed. “You two and Shinji are the reason this city still exists. Just say what you need us to do and we'll do it.”

Toji crossed his arms and nodded seriously. “What he said. We'll meet you at the gate when school ends, Rei. And, uh...” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “Let's... _not_ tell my sister about this just yet. Give Shinji a chance to adjust to _us_ before Sakura bowls him over in her joy.”

* * *

Judging from the look on the young girl's face, Sakura obviously didn't believe whatever Toji had told her about why everybody else was going to the Katsuragi apartment. When they parted ways at the elevator, she shot a pointed look at her brother just as the door closed.

“I don't think I'll be able to get out of this,” Toji muttered as they stepped out of the elevator on the seventh floor. “She's gonna kill me for lying to her about Shinji.”

“We'll give you a worthy funeral then,” Kensuke said with a grin.

Bidding the boys and Hikari to wait just before the door, Rei went into the Katsuragi apartment. She was greeted by Shinji, carrying a basket of clean laundry out of the bathroom.

He almost dropped it and began hyperventilating when he heard that his friends wanted to see him, just as Asuka came into the kitchen.

“I-I... don't know if I can handle it yet,” he mumbled a few minutes later, after Asuka and Rei directed him to sit at the dining table and helped him to calm down, sitting in chairs on either side of him.

“I know you're scared, but they're your friends,” Asuka said. “You _know_ Hikari's a good person. The Stooges might be dumb and rude, but they'd never even _think_ badly about you.”

“Please trust us, Shinji,” Rei added. “It pains me to see you afraid to even step outside.”

Shinji hesitantly looked up into her eyes. “Sorry...”

Feeling something brush against her leg, Asuka momentarily forgot about rebuking him for the apology and looked down. The boy's right hand was twitching again,  convulsively  clenching tightly  and releasing.

_'He's never been very good at social interactions to begin with, and now we're trying to make him step way outside his massively shrunken comfort zone. He's getting stressed out. You know what to do, Asuka.'_

Shinji gasped as he felt hands close around his own, and lift it up to the surface of the table. There was a quick glance between the girls, unnoticed by him, and two more hands joined in.

“We are here for you, Shinji,” Rei quietly said. “But if you truly feel that you cannot handle seeing your friends yet, then we shall try again another time.”

Asuka watched cautiously as Shinji clenched his eyes shut for a moment. “Alright,” he finally said. “I'll... I'll see them.”

A ghost of a smile flitted across the First Child's face as she got up and headed to the front door. Asuka and Shinji watched her go, before turning their gazes back to each other. Unable to maintain the eye contact, Shinji shyly looked down at the table, and redness quickly flooded his cheeks. Asuka glanced down as well.

She was still holding his hand.

The sound of the door hissing open and Rei speaking distracted Shinji for a moment, and Asuka pulled her hands away, fighting down her body's attempt to match shades with his. She didn't take her eyes off him, though, and so saw the boy flinch the moment Toji, Hikari and Kensuke came into view. While Asuka had been expecting a reaction like that, what she didn't expect was for Shinji to close his eyes and clutch his forehead, letting out an almost inaudible groan.

“Shin-man!”

Shinji's eyes snapped open as Toji greeted him. “H-hi,” he weakly said, waving the hand that had just been on his forehead as Hikari and Kensuke also said hello. “How are you guys?”

“Ah, can't complain. You?”

A feeble smile worked its way onto Shinji's face. “Um, good?” The lie was obvious, but nobody had the heart to call him out on it.

Asuka got up and went to the fridge as the male teenagers began to talk. She took out a soda for herself, pointing at it with a questioning motion to her guests, who shook their heads. Rei also declined, and headed down the hallway into her bedroom to drop her bag off, before passing through the kitchen into the lounge with her homework.

To the Second Child's relief, they seemed to be actively avoiding talking about what had happened to Shinji, instead opting to fill him in on school life, and Asuka relaxed when his shoulders shook a little as Toji made a rude comment and awkwardly dodged a slap from Hikari.

“Are... you two together?” Shinji asked after the two had settled back down.

“They sure are. It only took them all last year to figure out they liked each other,” Kensuke quipped before the other two could respond.

A proper smile grew on Shinji's face. “I'm happy for the both of you.”

“Thanks, man,” Toji replied. “Yeah, after we got evacuated, Hikari made me feel better about my prosthetics-” He gently thumped the table just as Shinji was about to open his mouth. “Gonna stop you right there. I know that look. You got _nothin_ ' to be sorry for, dude. I know you did everything you could to try and save me. And look at me.” He flexed his left arm, pulling the sleeve up to his shoulder. “I don't even _have_ the prosthetics anymore so your apology would _still_ be pointless.”

Asuka smirked behind her soda can at Toji's successful apology-block. She had been ready to jump in herself, but the jock stooge had simply been quicker.

“So anyway,” Kensuke said after a brief silence. “Has the Red Demon been treating you properly since you awakened?” He flinched away from the second glare Hikari shot at him that day.

The 'demon' in question was the only one to notice the brief flash of anger in Shinji's eyes at  Kensuke's choice of title. “What do you mean?”

“Well, don't forget what she was like last year...”

“I'm fine,” Shinji stiffly replied. “Asuka has been nothing but helpful to me during my recovery... despite how little I deserve it.”

Sensing that the conversation would soon be over thanks to Kensuke, Hikari rose from her seat and said, “We're glad to see that you're better, Shinji, but we should get going now. These two have plenty of _homework_ to get through.” She waved down the protests and directed a question at Asuka. “If it's alright with you guys, may we come over tomorrow?”

Asuka shrugged nonchalantly. “Sure, we'll be done at NERV well before school finishes.”

“More tests?” Kensuke innocently asked.

If Hikari's glares had been a laser, the one that Asuka gave him had the force of a Positron Rifle. Kensuke almost fell out of his chair at her expression, which purely said, “Shut the hell up.”

“Um, tests? No, Asuka's teaching me how to swim,” Shinji hesitantly replied, not understanding the reason for the suddenly hostile atmosphere.

_'Damnit, stooge. I'm going to have to tell Shinji about the Evas soon, thanks to you,'_ Asuka darkly thought. When Shinji had awoken, Asuka had mentioned him being in Unit-01 as something that actually happened, but he had focused entirely on the fact that he had attacked her. The subject of the Evangelions hadn't come up since, and Asuka didn't want to risk bringing it up again.

But now a nerd had nearly spilled the beans.

Said nerd was now being almost dragged out of the apartment by a  _much_ more tactful Hikari, with Toji following sheepishly behind. He stopped just before disappearing out of sight down the hallway that led to the front door and turned around. “Hey, Shin-man. My sister will be coming tomorrow as well. She'll be... uh...  _happy_ to see you.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah. Happy. Seeya.”

The door hissed open a few seconds later. Shinji and Asuka heard the athlete say, “You damn id-,” just before it closed.

“Ignore Nerd Stooge,” Asuka said with a sigh. “Like I said before, they're dumb.”

When there was no response from him, she turned her head to look at Shinji. His elbows were on the table, left hand cradling his head and the right hovering nearby, once more rhythmically clenching.

“You okay?” she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

The physical contact brought Shinji's attention back to her, blinking confusedly for a moment. “Y-yeah,” he mumbled. “Just a headache.”

“Even I didn't think they were _that_ annoying,” Asuka chuckled.

The quip brought a weak grin to the Third Child's face. “No, not that. It's...” His hand clenched once more before dropping to the table. “Never mind. I'm going to go lie down and rest for a bit.”

“Wait.” The redhead tightened her grip slightly as he made to get up. “I saw you when they came in. You looked like somebody tried to flay your soul.”

Just as he seemed about to confess what had caused the headache, Shinji shook his head. “Please, I'll tell you later, when I can think straight again.”

Piling on the false sarcasm, Asuka exhaled loudly and said, “Fine, I guess _I'll_ make dinner tonight. Just don't take _too_ long to screw your head back on properly." She turned serious again. "I do want to know what's wrong. When you're ready to talk.”

Perhaps realising that she wouldn't let the matter rest forever, another small smile was the only response Asuka got as Shinji stood up and ambled down the hallway to their bedroom. A moment later, there was a thud from the room that could only be the boy practically collapsing onto his futon.

* * *

Asuka felt rather silly knocking on the door to her own bedroom, especially when there was no answer. For once she was glad for the Japanese convention of sliding doors, as with both hands full it made opening the door easier.

She made her way to the head of Shinji's futon, and the boy stirred as Asuka sat down, placing the glass of water and box of pills she was carrying on the floor next to her.

“Hey...” was Shinji's muzzy greeting as he raised himself up on one arm.

“Hey yourself,” Asuka replied. “It's been an hour, but I take it you're not feeling any better?”

“Nnngh, not even slightly.” His attempt to sit upright failed, until Asuka gave a helping hand. She removed two pills from the box and gently but firmly pressed them into Shinji's hand. She had to support his back as he tossed them in his mouth and almost fell over. After using the water to wash them down, he remarked, “I really hope that was aspirin, my head feels like an Angel is trying to break in.”

“No, actually I gave you some of Misato's contraceptive pills.”

Shinji's head must have been hurting more than Asuka thought, as he completely missed the obvious sarcasm in her voice. She hadn't turned the light on when she entered the room, but it wasn't needed. The partially-open curtain still let in enough late afternoon light to see the horrified look on the boy's face.

“ _W-w-what?!”_

“Oh relax, I was joking.” Asuka held up the box for proof. “These are still Misato's, though it's something a lot stronger than aspirin. Probably what she used to take to get over one of her monster hangovers. I'm sure she won't mind you having a couple.” As Shinji calmed back down, she squinted at the box. “Paracetamol. Huh, I think these were bought recently too.”

“Maybe she got them to deal with the headache of being Supreme Commander.”

Asuka shrugged before picking up the box and empty glass, and stood up. “Maybe. Anyway, I'm going to start making dinner, you feel like anything in particular?”

Shinji thought for a moment before shaking his head, instantly regretting it as the motion aggravated his headache. “Whatever you feel like will be fine.”

“Alright.” Asuka walked out of the bedroom, stopping in the doorway with a hand on the frame. “The painkillers should kick in soon. Will you talk to me after dinner, about what caused your headache?” she asked hopefully.

From her position, it appeared for a moment that Shinji had deliberately turned away from her. Just as she was about to get upset that he was ignoring her, Asuka heard, “Huh? Yeah, I'll tell you.”

“Good.” Asuka drummed her fingers on the door frame for a few seconds, before closing her eyes and saying, “Please don't try and hold everything in, Shinji. There are people that want to help. They... they care about you.”

She left the doorway before any possible response could be made.

* * *

Misato arrived home shortly after dinner was laid out on the dining table. She expressed concern over Shinji's headache, but as he was already starting to feel better, both he and Asuka seemed to silently agree not to disclose what had apparently caused it. When her headache medication was brought up, Misato cheerfully stated that Shinji could take as much as he needed. Within reason of course.

Cleanup duty fell to Rei that night. While it was originally her brother's night for the dishes, she seemed to innately understand that he was  somewhat under the weather , and insisted that he go lay down. When Asuka got up to follow him, Rei gave her a meaningful look behind Misato's back that suggested she would like an explanation later, to which the Second Child nodded.

Back in their bedroom, Asuka closed the curtains as Shinji sat down on his futon. Instead of turning on the ceiling light, she instead used the lamp next to her bed to illuminate the room with a softer glow. The redhead then dropped exaggeratedly onto her own futon, before crossing her legs and leaning an elbow on each knee with her chin in her hands.

Shinji smiled a little at the sight. “You look like you're ready for some girl talk.”

Asuka grinned right back at him. “Well I'm a girl, and we're going to talk about something personal. Speaking of which...”

“Ah. Right...” Shinji looked downward.

The room turned silent, but Asuka knew not to press him. He was obviously gathering his thoughts together. After a couple of minutes, he looked back up at her.

“How... how much do you know about my role in Third Impact?” he slowly asked.

Asuka frowned. She had certainly not expected him to go back _that_ far in his explanation. It was going to be a struggle to pick her words carefully. “You were... the one who gave everybody the chance to return,” she eventually replied, gingerly stepping around the landmine topic of Shinji's control.

A landmine that the boy proceeded to walk directly over. “I _was_ the one in control. Lilith asked _me_ to decide humanity's fate,” he darkly muttered.

“Shinji, we've already gone over how it's not truly your fault,” Asuka said, trying to placate him.

“Yeah...” It was clear in both his voice and expression that Shinji still didn't believe it. “A bunch of old men did everything. But they're not the ones that have to suffer.” He let out a low sigh. “Anyway, when I... when...”

Asuka put a hand on his shoulder as his voice trailed off. “We don't need to talk about this part.”

“Actually, I do,” Shinji replied, raising his head slightly. He took a deep breath and tried again. “When... I made the decision... to end humanity, and Lilith began collecting their souls... _something_ happened. They all... passed through me. It was like I was the doorway to Instrumentality, and every single soul passed through mine on their way in.”

Asuka shivered at the thought, wondering how it must have felt. “But... what does this have to do with your headache _now_?” she asked.

“Um... I'm getting to that. When each soul collided with mine, something was left behind. Like two cars trading paint in a scrape.” Shinji tapped the side of his head.

Her eyes widening in shock, Asuka let out a strangled gasp. “Their... memories?!” When Shinji nodded, she added, “ _Mein Gott,_ ” in a hushed whisper.

“Fortunately for me, the human mind doesn't seem capable of remembering such a thing very well,” Shinji went on, cheering up slightly. “I had the combined weight of humanity's knowledge and memories in my head for only a few minutes before I started forgetting things en masse. Before I knew it... all I could clearly remember was that the memories had been there. For everything else, it was like that feeling you get when you can't quite recall something, only magnified a few billion times.”

Asuka let out the breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. What Shinji had just described sounded similar to what Misato had recounted of Doctor Akagi's hysterical rant about people not clearly remembering their time in Instrumentality, rendering SEELE's ultimate plan... ultimately useless. If a human's mind could not hope to understand such a concept as Instrumentality, how could they ever become one?

She said as much to Shinji, but before she could get too happy, he said, “Too bad that doesn't seem to apply to me. I remember everything from the point I... gave up... to the point where I made the decision to let people return.” He put a hand to his head and chuckled humourlessly. “It was a mindscrew.”

Raising an eyebrow at the Third Child's one-word description, Asuka began to think while tapping a finger against her chin. “All of humanity's knowledge...” she mused. “But the memories that come with it wouldn't be worth the price. Not by a long shot.”

“No,” Shinji agreed. “Imagine seeing a person on the street, and knowing instantly that they were cheating on their spouse. Or that somebody has disturbing, _sexual_ thoughts about somebody else.”

“Eurgh.” Asuka made a face, which disappeared as quickly as it had formed when something occurred to her. She made a great mental leap. “Wait... what happened today, when you saw our friends... Did you suddenly remember their lives?”

And perfectly nailed the landing.

Shinji looked at her with surprise mixed with not a small amount of admiration. In his eyes the judges held up several tens and a nine. “Yeah, you're definitely still a genius,” he said with a smile. “The second they came in and looked at me, I was hit by three lots of memories at once, and...”

“Mindscrew?” Asuka guessed, trying to ignore the tingling sensation she felt when Shinji praised her.

“A very impolite one.”

She tilted her head upward and hummed thoughtfully. “Yet you still asked Hikari and Jock Stooge about their relationship. It started before Third Impact, so you knew about it. You asked so they could tell you themselves.”

“You're pretty good at that sort of thinking, Asuka.”

Again, she had to resist the urge to blush at another compliment. “Damn right, I'm a regular Sherlock Holmes.”

Asuka had been anticipating another smile, and had even braced herself for the effect it might have. What she was not expecting for Shinji to give her a look of polite incomprehension and say, “Um... who?”

“...Sherlock Holmes? Famous fictional detective?”

“I... don't think I've ever heard of him,” Shinji hesitantly said.

“What?!” Asuka was shocked, almost angry at this revelation, and the Third Child reflexively leaned away from her. “What kind of school did you go to where you never learned about the world's greatest detective?”

His eyes downcast, Shinji mumbled, “I... never went to school until last year. I had a tutor instead.”

“O-oh...” The fire disappeared from Asuka's voice, snuffed out by the boy's sad expression. “Sorry Shinji, I didn't know.”

“It's fine, Asuka.” With a shrug, he continued, “You couldn't have known. My tutor only taught me the essentials. Literacy and numeracy, that sort of thing. Oh, and I kind of had to learn how to cook by myself when I was old enough to start. He basically forced the job onto me, saying that either I would learn or starve.”

The anger returned. “Your tutor was a goddamn bastard. How old were you when that started?”

“Uh,” Shinji frowned in thought. “Eight, I think.”

Asuka raised an eyebrow. “You 'think'?”

“Well after a while of living with him I lost track of time, what with every day being the same thing. Until I came to Tokyo-3 and got my official identification, I couldn't be positive how old I was.” Asuka tilted her head in confusion, and Shinji rubbed the back of his head, smiling weakly as he continued. “Heh, I actually thought I was sixteen. But that was probably because the years _really_ dragged on, and the fact that I never even got to celebrate my birthday di-”

“ _WHAT?!”_

* * *

The shout seemed to echo through the apartment, drawing surprised looks from the two people in the lounge room just as the television had been turned off.

“What was that about?” Misato wondered.

“Shinji and Asuka are talking,” Rei replied. “He must have simply said something surprising to her.”

“So surprising she was probably heard downstairs? What did Shinji do, confess to her?”

“Confess? I do not understand.”

“Never mind, you will someday.”

* * *

Back in the bedroom, Asuka struggled to calm down. Shinji was still talking, but in her indignant rage she only caught half of it.

“-sn't allowed to watch television much. Just documentaries that were relevant to my lessons. Apart from the cello I didn't even get to entertain myself. Even then, that was only a couple years before I got called here.”

Asuka put aside the surprising news that Shinji had become a good cello player in such a short time, because she had a sudden urge to punch something. Punch some _one_. To deprive a growing child of any form of entertainment was almost barbaric to her. And to completely ignore a child's birthday?

She would bet an entire decade's worth of NERV paychecks that it was done by the order of his own father.

While she had started Evangelion piloting very early in her life, she had still been given time off so that she didn't burn out. By the sound of things, Shinji had been a candle burnt at both ends and in the middle. And yet here he stood, somehow having survived everything thrown at him. Here he remained.

The only way things could have been worse would be if  corporal punishment was involved . Asuka stifled a shudder, and fought down the mental image of a Shinji that would be like... like the First Child used to be.

“That... _Arschloch_ is lucky he doesn't live in this city,” she ground out through clenched teeth. Almost to herself, she added, “Wonder if he's the reason you don't know anything about Christian religion either.”

“Um, what?” The strange subject change threw Shinji for a loop. “Japan is mostly Shinto and Buddhism. All I really know of Christianity is that it's a Western religion.”

_'Well great, it was already_ _a bit_ _of an obscure reference. No wonder the 'idiot' didn't come in that night.'_ Asuka turned away from him slightly, laying down on top of her futon. She stared up at the ceiling and said, “Remember last year, during our sync training week? That one night when Misato wasn't around?”

“Yeah, you moved into her room for the night and said something about a wall of... jerks or something,” Shinji replied. “What about it?”

The boy's confusion diffused some of the Second Child's anger, but then she remembered what had happened afterwards with a sigh. Or to be more precise, what _hadn't_ happened. “The next time you're on the internet, look up 'The Walls of Jericho'. Jeh-rikh-oh,” she clarified, slowly pronouncing the English word.

“Jericho...”

“Yeah. Do that, and...” Asuka voice went quiet. “And then you'll find out why I didn't sleep well that night.”

“Okay,” Shinji replied, before failing to stifle a yawn.

She couldn't help it. The contagion spread, and Asuka yawned too. “Wow, we must have been talking for a while. We should probably turn in.”

“...Alright.”

Asuka knew him well enough by this point to know when something was worrying him. “What's the matter?”

“It's nothing,” the boy defensively said as he lay down. This time, it was clear he was trying to end the conversation as he put his back to Asuka.

She sat up and put a hand on his left shoulder, forcing him to turn back over and look up at her. “Shinji, tonight we've learned some new things about each other. I've even given you a hint to something I would never have mentioned even under torture last year. Don't backslide on me now!”

For a long while the two teenagers stared at each other, his cobalt eyes filled with worry and fear mixed with reticence, while her sapphire eyes radiated determination and concern. Finally, Shinji sighed and began to sit up. Asuka removed her hand but didn't move, staying almost on top of him.

“There's one other... _thing_ I got from the souls that passed through me,” he quietly said. “And I wouldn't even wish it upon my _father_.”

“W-what was it, Shinji?” she hesitantly asked as she moved back slightly in surprise. She would later regret not letting him drop the subject.

“How many people alive do you think there were when I triggered Third Impact?” His eyes began to turn hollow.

“Don't change the subj-,” Asuka began.

Shinji quickly interrupted. “How many people, Asuka?”

The Second Child ran a hand through her hair, and made a guess with a shrug. “It was about three billion, right?”

“Three billion, three hundred and twenty-nine million, nine hundred and sixty-seven thousand, five hundred and fourteen,” Shinji corrected without hesitation.

Asuka was stunned for a long minute, and Shinji's eyes drifted to the ceiling. It took her a long, agonising minute to work up the nerve to say, “That's... incredibly specific.”

“Do you want to know how I know?”

Fear bloomed inside the redhead, but Asuka couldn't stop herself from opening her mouth and uttering one word. “How?”

Shinji met her gaze, and Asuka stared into the eyes of a boy who had hang-glided over Hell. The expression would be forever seared into her memory as Shinji replied, “Because I hear them screaming every night in my dreams.”

* * *

Rei paused at the open door to her room. She frowned, and looked across at Asuka and Shinji's closed door. Something was worrying her, and she couldn't understand exactly what it was. All she could fathom was that it involved her brother.  She was wondering whether she should knock and see if everything was alright, when the feeling suddenly vanished.

* * *

The moment control of her body had returned after the shock had worn off, it had moved without any conscious thought on Asuka's part. She had almost knocked Shinji over, wrapping her arms tightly around the boy. Only his arms, thrown desperately backwards, had halted a sudden impact with the floor.

They sat like that for a long time, until Shinji finally mustered up some courage. He cleared his throat and said, “Um... Asuka? Did I say something wrong? You... seem to be slowly trying to crush me.”

Asuka didn't let go, but she did loosen her grip a minuscule fraction. “It's a hug, you idiot. I'm hugging you.”

“O-oh...” An eternity passed, and then another. “Um... Asuka? W-why are you hugging me?”

She closed her eyes and sighed into his shoulder. “Because you need one, dummy.”

The warmth seemed almost addictive, and she refused to break the hug and reveal her incandescent face. It was far, _far_ too late to pass this off as just a gesture of emotional support.

_'But Shinji wouldn't be Shinji if he clearly understood something like this,'_ Asuka gladly thought.  _'I guess I'm... hah, safe for now.'_

Asuka had lost track of the number of times she had gone over the scenario in her head the previous year. It always seemed so easy to do in the safety of her own mind. Just admit that she might possibly consider... thinking about liking him. But the words could never be said; the only time she had made an attempt, Shinji had had to ask her if something was wrong as she stared at him, unable to force anything out of her mouth. 

That had been a restless night.

Even now, something was still holding her back. She was _hugging_ him already, so why couldn't she say anything? Was it just not the right time? Would she ever be able to get past that nagging insecurity that somehow nothing would go right if she admitted her interest?

For the time being, she would gladly settle for Shinji being in _her_ arms.

The words would just have to wait.

* * *

Asuka stared at the side of Shinji's head as she waited for sleep to claim her. After the sudden hug had been awkwardly broken, they had quietly slipped into their futons, with both of them trying to hide their red faces while at the same time surreptitiously checking to see if the other was still blushing.

They were. For quite a long time.

Now  she found that she simply couldn't fall asleep, despite feeling like a bit of weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She hadn't been expecting Shinji to reveal so much of his life before coming to Tokyo-3, but it ended up answering several questions at once. Asuka felt like kicking herself for some of the insults she had hurled at Shinji the previous year. After all, it wasn't  _ his _ choice to be abandoned by one parental figure after losing the other, then get sent to live with what sounded like the strictest teacher in the world for a decade.

And now she knew just how badly Third Impact had scrambled his poor mind.

No wonder  Shinji felt like he was responsible, with over three billion people screaming  at him while he slept , to the point where he had somehow been able to  _ count them _ . No wonder he was starting to develop bags under his eyes from all the missed hours of sleep a growing person needed.

_Gott_ , she wished Misato still had a drinking problem, purely so she could liberate a couple cans from the horde and see if the Third Child's nightmares could be held at bay for even one night.

The sound of bedclothes ruffling reached her ears, and Asuka watched Shinji crawl out from underneath his covers, lying down on top of them and bringing a hand up to his face to rub his eyes with a thumb and forefinger.

“Can't sleep?” she quietly asked, despite the answer being blatantly obvious, and Shinji hummed in agreement. “Me neither. You dropped quite a bombshell.”

The boy's hand dropped back to his side. “Yeah, shame about the friendly fire.”

It was a lame joke, but Asuka chuckled a little anyway, before kicking her futon cover off in frustration. “And this damnable summer! It's _night time_! The sun is on the _other side_ of the planet, and it's _still_ this freaking hot!”

“I used to be able to tolerate the heat more than this,” Shinji mused. “But after the Eighth Angel, I can barely even handle a hot bath anymore.”

Asuka winced. “Oooh... right. Diving into a volcano with no protection.”

_'Putting your life at risk just to save mine, you..._ hero. _'_

Seeing that final cable snap, she had just prepared herself for her soon to be horrific death by magma when a miracle occurred. The last thing she had expected to see was a giant purple fist latching on to the remains of the cable, keeping her from sinking into the molten abyss. There had been _nightmares_ about that day. Only this year, while she was sleeping next to her saviour, did those nightmares turn back into good dreams with the appearance of Unit-01 breaking through the orange sea.

With how well the two of them had been talking that night, the redhead wondered if she should get Shinji's side of the story from that day. She was curious to know _why_ he had disobeyed Misato's order to simply let her die.

He beat her to the punch.

“And I would do it again in a heartbeat, Asuka,” Shinji solemnly said.

“But... you had no protection!” Asuka repeated, barely keeping her voice down. “What would you have done if the crane or the cable couldn't support the weight of _both_ our Evas?!”

The Third Child responded without a moment's hesitation. “While I was rushing to catch you, I planned for something like that. If it looked like the crane couldn't support our weight, my plan was to pull you up to the cable so that you could hang on while I let go.”

Asuka's eyes shot wide open, and she stared in horror at Shinji. He was staring resolutely upwards at the ceiling, but she could still make out the serious expression on his face. _'He... would have_ _ **sacrificed himself**_ _for me?!'_ She abruptly sat up and put a hand to her face. _'Why?!'_

“Because you were a much more experienced pilot than me. It's only right that you deserved to live.”

Asuka suddenly realised that her last question hadn't been asked in the privacy of her own head.

Back then, she would have accepted that reasoning without question, because she would have believed it fully at the time. Of _course_ the rookie should sacrifice themselves to save someone better than them. But now? While she would admit that her pilot ego was still strong, it had taken a severe beating in the time leading up to Third Impact. When... _if..._ Shinji ever piloted again, she would have very little to criticise him for.

After all, how could she ever think so poorly of the reluctant young man who had practically been forced to cripple his best friend, quit piloting in protest, but came back and _still_ fought the Fourteenth Angel to a standstill? After being retrieved from her plug and watching a recording of the fight, Asuka was positive that if it hadn't been for the bastard's cheap shot at his power cable, the Third Child would have easily emerged victorious.

But then she had hidden her reaction to everything under a veil of hate at the 'stolen kill'.

“Hey, you were pretty good too, you know,” she finally said. “Do you think those friends of yours could have done so well their first time out? Could Nerd Stooge have successfully synchronised with me against the Seventh Angel?”

The room was stifling. Asuka got up and opened her window wider, shifting the curtains to let what little breeze there was enter unimpeded.

“... I suppose,” she heard from behind. “Kensuke was rather obsessed, but there's a difference between just seeing something like an Eva and actually _controlling_ it.”

Asuka turned around. “Took _me_ ten years to get to where I was. It'd probably take him thirty.” Shinji made a non-committal noise, possibly deciding not to argue the point, and she smirked at the rising moon before returning to her futon. She smoothed out the covers, and laid back down with her arms behind her head.

After a few minutes of silence, with tiredness still just a hope, she turned her head sideways and said, “Hey Shinji. You said you couldn't stand hot baths anymore, right?”

“Huh?” Shinji finally broke from staring at the ceiling. “Y-yeah, I start feeling like my skin's on fire. Why?”

Asuka winced, remembering the heat she felt just from the neural feedback of her Evangelion inside the dive suit when the coolant lines were cut. Now she had the answer to the question she had asked herself back when Rei had practically interrogated her on her involvement with Shinji. 'Skin on fire' was honestly less than she had predicted. “Then why did you stay in the hot spring Misato took us to?”

“Well...” The Third Child shrugged as best as he could while laying down. “That's where it started. I was doing fine for a while, but I eventually had to get out when it became too much for me to handle.”

“And you haven't been able to enjoy a bath since?”

“No,” Shinji replied. His brow furrowed, then his cheeks reddened slightly as he added, “Well, there was one time when I could tolerate it. Kaworu... he joined me in the bath at NERV. I don't know now if it was just that someone was there for me to take my mind off it, or whether he did something as an Angel, but I didn't feel a thing while he was with me.”

A spike of jealousy hit Asuka at the mention of that pretty-boy, but she had a quip ready to stifle it. “Probably used bullshit space magic on you,” she said, wiggling her fingers in the air as she spoke. “Booooweeeeooooo!” Her 'magic' noise did it for Shinji. He let out a laugh, and Asuka joined in.

And then, practically simultaneously, they both yawned. This time, though, Asuka finally began to feel tired. “Alright, shall we try and fall asleep again?”

“Mmm.”

The cool breeze had picked up a little, and the heat in the bedroom no longer felt as bad. It was enough to let sleep creep in at the edges of Asuka's mind, and as she started to nod off, one final thought popped into her mind.

_'Does Shinji have my memories too?'_

It was too late to ask. There had been enough talk that night. Asuka made a note to ask him tomorrow. But first she would have to speak to Misato about something of vital importance.

A birthday party for the Third Child.

* * *

“A birthday party?” Misato asked as she made her morning coffee. “Well, I suppose we _did_ miss his last one due to... unfortunate circumstances.”

Asuka nodded. “I want it to be a good one too.” She paused, waiting for the woman to take a sip of her coffee, and proceeded to deliver a belated bombshell at just the right moment, in retaliation for the teasing she had suffered at Misato's hands. “Seeing as Shinji hasn't been able to celebrate his birthday in ten years.”

The cup slammed onto the dining table so hard the handle broke off and coffee slopped onto the table. Asuka was disappointed that there was no spray from the commander's mouth, but the feral look in Misato's eyes held her attention. It was possibly similar to the righteous indignation her own eyes likely blazed with after learning that piece of information herself.

“You. Are. Shitting me,” Misato flatly stated.

“I'm not,” Asuka calmly replied. “I got Shinji to open up to me a bit last night, and he told me of his time with the teacher his pathetic excuse for a father dumped him with.” She gave a brief rundown of that part of last night's conversation, skirting around Shinji's memories because she felt that it was something Shinji  sh ould speak about himself, but she couldn't decide whether to mention Shinji's side of the volcano mission. 

Judging from how spiky Misato's language got just from speaking of Shinji's life before Tokyo-3, Asuka cautiously decided it would be wise not to talk about him behind his back anymore. She would just have to convince him that it was alright to reveal such personal information to Misato himself.

“Anyway, we need to make this party great,” Asuka reiterated, bringing the conversation back to the reason why she had gotten up early to catch Misato. “Of course, he doesn't have a ton of friends, so the apartment should be fine, right?”

Misato nodded. “Yes, of course you use the apartment. I can't exactly force Shinji to go out somewhere, after all.” She sighed and put her chin in her hand. “I hope I have the evening free to join the party.”

Her time away from NERV to help Shinji having long since run out, Misato had grudgingly gone back to her duties as Commander. She still drove them to and from the Geofront for the swimming lessons, but she no longer had the time to stick around during or afterwards.

“You're the Supreme Commander of NERV,” Asuka replied, waving her hands sarcastically as she recited the full title. “If you ordered it, you could probably get everybody to strip down to their underwear and form a conga line in the corridors. I'm _sure_ you could get a few hours off for your foster son's party.”

With a thick coating of sarcasm and a grin, Misato said, “I'll see if I can get that base-wide order scheduled. So when do you want the party?”

Asuka thought for a moment. “It's Friday now... Sunday would be good, with no school. With only a few friends all we really need to organise is the cake and decorations and such.”

The cake would be relatively easy, Asuka knew. She wanted to make it herself, but it would give away the surprise if she did so in the Katsuragi apartment. Hikari would no doubt be eager to help, and likely gladly offer her apartment to both cook and hide the cake. That only left two problems: distracting Shinji while the cake was being made, and stealthily decorating the apartment on the day.

When the second problem was put to Misato, she said, “That's easy. I can give a key to your friend Hikari, and she can get those two boys in as well as organise the decorations while we're at NERV that day.” She looked at her watch and shot to her feet. “Damn, gotta go. Have a chat with Hikari after school, let her know what's going on.”

* * *

The first problem turned out to be just as easy, almost by accident.

Asuka had sent a text message Hikari during the day, asking to talk at the Katsuragi apartment. A few minutes after school let out, she got a reply saying that the class representative, as well as Toji, Kensuke and Sakura, were on their way home and would stop by.

The Second Child was too busy in the lounge room perusing a recipe book, cleverly hiding  a second book full of desserts inside it, so she let Shinji answer the door.

“H-hey th-”  
  
“ _Shinji!_ ” Several dozen kilograms of exuberant young girl cannoned into the surprised teen, almost sending him falling back into the wall before he regained his balance.

“Oof!”

“Hey! Careful, Sakura!” Toji yelled.

Back in the lounge room, Asuka grinned as she snapped the books shut. She couldn't make out the rapid fire sentences Sakura was saying, but the gist was clear: The girl was over the moon at seeing Shinji lucid. Asuka got up from the sofa and greeted the guests as they came into the kitchen. A bemused Shinji was being led by the hand by Sakura through his own home.

“Asuka, you wanted to talk?” Hikari asked after everybody had settled down.

The redhead nodded. “Yeah, let's go to my room.”

  
She spared a final glance at the lounge room before leaving, noting that Sakura was almost sitting on Shinji's lap. For his part, Shinji didn't appear worried. Perhaps the young girl's memories had been knocked out of him by her... energetic greeting.

In the shared bedroom, Asuka briefly explained the situation, but again took care not to mention the more personal stuff.

“Of course I'll help you, Asuka!” Hikari replied. “It may be a bit late, but that's no reason not to give this our best effort. Have you decided on a cake yet?”

The hidden recipe book was opened, and flipped to the correct page. Asuka watched in amusement as her friend's gaze turned almost lustful at what was on the paper. It looked as if Hikari was just barely stopping herself from eating the page.

“Alright, take it easy,” she said, gently pulling Hikari back to a vertical sitting position. “Surely you can wait until Sunday.”

“Oh!” The pig-tailed girl snapped out of whatever fantasy she had fallen into. “Um, r-right! Sunday!” She turned back to the book and let out a small sigh of longing.

Barely restraining herself from laughing out loud, Asuka got Hikari's attention once more. “Okay, we'll make the cake tomorrow. I'm _fairly_ sure we can convince Sakura to come around again after school to keep Shinji occupied. What about decorations though?”

Hikari offered hers for the undertaking. Her older sister had had her birthday a couple of months ago, but had requested that it stay family-only. That didn't stop the other members of the Horaki household from making a big deal of it, and the decorations now sat unused in a box in a storage closet.

“I think that's everything sorted then,” Asuka remarked. “Sunday's shaping up to be a good day.”

* * *

Shinji and Asuka's friends had to head home after only an hour, to Sakura's great regret. She brightened up considerably when the redhead invited her over the next day.

And then almost sprinted out the front door, as if she could force time to go faster by speeding herself.

The older teens left more sedately, but not before Asuka noticed a bemused look on Toji's face. After the door closed once more, she turned around and saw Shinji wearing the same expression. “Alright, what's going on?” she demanded.

Shinji flushed, bringing a hand up to run his fingers through his hair. “Um... Sakura said something... interesting.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“She... um... said that she really liked me.” The red in Shinji's cheeks deepened. Asuka folded her arms and levelled a deadly glare at the Third Child, who backed away slightly. “W-what are you looking at me like that for?” he hastily asked. “She said that she wished I was her brother too!”

Lowering the power of her gaze from 'Positron Rifle' to 'laser targeting system,' Asuka replied, “Is that why Jock Stooge walked out of here looking odd?”

“Well, what Sakura _actually_ said was 'I wish you were my brother', then corrected herself when Toji got unhappy,” Shinji clarified. “She got really sad when she thought she had hurt his feelings. It took a bit of effort to cheer her up again.”

Asuka chuckled. “I guess not thinking before opening your mouth runs in the Suzuhara family.”

“Yeah.” Shinji joined in on the laugh. “So Sakura's coming over again tomorrow, is she?”

“Yes, and I'll be going over to Hikari's place for some _kanji_ tutoring.” An easy enough half-truth, considering that they would need something to do while the cake was in the oven, and Asuka _had_ been slacking off slightly in that regard. “It was one of Misato's stipulations for me looking after you instead of going to school, since your written language is my only weak subject.”

Shinji nodded, and returned to the lounge room, not noticing the minuscule sigh of relief from behind him.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. When it came time for dinner, Shinji and Asuka decided to make it together. As the Third Child began cutting and washing, Asuka felt the almost-forgotten twinges of synchronisation training return. Despite her back being turned to him, she could almost pinpoint exactly when Shinji was about to pass more ingredients to her. Eventually, she was able stick a hand out with the pan exactly as he was about to put the final handful next to her. She could sense the momentary confusion, and almost _see_ the raised eyebrow, before Shinji corrected himself and dropped the ingredients into the pan.

It might have been her imagination, but the food tasted a little better than she expected that night, and she resolved to work with Shinji on the dinner preparations again in the future.

* * *

Saturday arrived, and Sakura came to the door of the Katsuragi apartment not long after school ended. Asuka left soon afterwards, after reassuring herself that the pre-teen would be able to keep Shinji, if not happy, at least distracted from his worries. On the way out, she remembered to quietly let Rei in on the birthday party plan, making sure to emphasise the importance of keeping it a secret from her brother.

When she got to the Horaki apartment, Asuka was somewhat surprised to see both Toji and Kensuke there. Upon questioning them, she learned that Hikari had already brought them into the birthday plans to help her prepare for Sunday.

While the boys got to work organising the decorations, which had simply been haphazardly thrown into storage, Hikari and Asuka sat on the couch, and got to work planning the cake the redhead had selected.

“I want this to be just right,” Asuka declared, before frowning and adding, “but I've never made this before.”

“Me neither,” Hikari replied. She got up to check the fridge and pantry, before returning to the couch. “We don't _quite_ have enough for one, so we need to go to the store. But... I don't doubt we'll mess up with the first.” She sighed. “The cake I made for my sister was much simpler, but I just can't resist this challenge!”

“Why not get enough to make two?” suggested Toji, before attempting to untangle himself from a line of crêpe paper. Asuka stared coolly at him, knowing perfectly well why he had made the suggestion. Hikari even folded her arms and looked disapprovingly at the athlete, who responded to both girls with a shrug and a hopeful grin.

But the desire to get everything perfect for the party burned strong in Asuka, and she grudgingly acquiesced. “Fine, we'll make two. First one will be a trial run so we can practice decorating it, and so you can stuff your faces afterwards.” She levelled a dangerous glare at the boys. “The second is staying here, _untouched_ , until tomorrow. Now let's go get what we need.”

When the teenagers arrived at the mall, the Second Child split off from Hikari and the boys to find a music store while the others got the cake ingredients. The present she had in mind seemed simple enough. A new bow for Shinji's cello.

After the events of that fateful day only a couple of weeks ago, Asuka had packed the instrument away in her room for the boy to easily access later, noticing that the bow was slightly cracked and starting to fray. She had made a mental note to see about getting a new one, but had been distracted by more important things.

Replacing the instrument itself was right out of the question, mostly because of the very discreet initials carved into the wood on the back: 'Y.I.'. She decided instead to simply clean it up.

Asuka was assailed with what felt like half an hour of questions as the old man behind the counter, who had introduced himself as Masami, quizzed Asuka on the recipient of the gift. After the barrage ended, she fired back with a question of her own, wanting to know the reason for the interrogation. The store owner merely smiled and said, “I have done this for a _very_ long time. All I need to do is ask the right questions and I can match a person to the perfect instrument.”

Masami then unlocked a container full of what looked like -at least to Asuka's untrained eyes- multiple copies of the same bow and stared at them, occasionally taking one out to check it closer. After five minutes, the old man finally took one out and put the rest away, placing the chosen bow in its own box and bringing it to the sales counter. Asuka had caught sight of the price tag, which almost caused her eyes to pop out of her head in shock. The man sadly explained that Second Impact had damaged the supply of the wood the bow was made from, which had already been shrinking to begin with.

It took Asuka only a minute to make her decision, and her NERV debit card was brought out. Masami's eyes lit up upon seeing the distinctive insignia on the card, and when the price was rung up, it ended up being only half what the tag said.

“Hero's discount,” Masami said with a smile. “Would you like it gift-wrapped too?”

* * *

That evening saw Asuka making it back home just as Shinji was finished preparing dinner. She ducked into the bathroom before he could turn around from the stove, checking herself in the mirror for any stray evidence of her deeds, before returning to the kitchen and sitting down at the table, where another delicious dinner was consumed.

But she was still on edge. From the time she entered the apartment until she finally fell asleep, she was constantly going over everything in her head to ensure the day would go without a hitch. If Shinji noticed how distracted she was, he kept it to himself. The cake was ready, hiding in Hikari's apartment, and her present was currently residing in her wardrobe. Most of the decorations had been put back in the Horaki's closet for being a bit too... girly, but there were still a few usable things.

The next morning came far too quickly for Asuka, who woke up feeling like she hadn't slept at all. Shinji had curled up tightly in his sleep, and was now wearing an anguished expression, but at least he hadn't spent the night hiding from his demons in a corner of the room. Asuka inwardly smiled at the fact that she was about to bring a massive light to the Third Child's life, hopefully one strong enough to aid the troubled boy, before waking him up so that they could have breakfast before going to NERV.

* * *

“Wow, I didn't think swimming could be _this_ exhausting,” Shinji moaned as the elevator slowly crawled up to the seventh floor. At Asuka's gentle insistence that he was ready, the Third Child finally managed to complete a full lap of the pool. And then she got him to do it faster, walking alongside and shouting encouragement. In the end, he had managed three laps, but Asuka had to almost drag him out of the water afterwards.

“Don't pass out too soon,” Misato replied from behind him, not even bothering to hide her grin. She had easily managed to get the rest of the day off to join the celebration, which contributed greatly to her happiness. “There's still the rest of the day to go.”

Asuka struggled to stifle her own smile. It was worse for her though, as she knew exactly what was coming. She had given Hikari a key to let herself, Toji, Kensuke and Sakura into the Katsuragi apartment, and had sent them a text while in the changing room after the day's pool session.

She prayed the stooges hadn't eaten all the snacks already.

With a quiet ding, the elevator stopped and opened its doors. Asuka walked briskly out, while Misato steered a stumbling Shinji along the walkway and Rei trailed behind. The redhead opened their apartment door and stepped in, quietly identifying herself to the hidden guests and telling them to get ready.

“Can't I at least nap a bit?” That was Shinji stepping through the doorway.

“Nope!” Misato, still behind him.

“But I'm so tired!” Shinji stepped into the kitchen, being gently prodded along.

“I know exactly what'll wake you up. A great big...”

“ _ **SURPRISE!”**_

On cue, five people came out of their hiding spots around the kitchen area and pulled the strings on their party poppers, hurling colourful strips of paper all over Shinji, who was frozen in shock. As several pieces fluttered gently onto his face, he looked down at a sudden noise at knee height. Since Pen-pen didn't have the manual dexterity to operate a popper, he had somehow managed to get a squawker into his mouth and was now enthusiastically joining in as best as he could.

“Happy birthday, Shinji!” yelled six people at once, and Rei chimed in at a much quieter volume.

A smile began to blossom on the boy's face, but then he tilted his head to the side in confusion. “But... my birthday is in June...”

“Yeah, and we missed it, Shin-man!” Toji said as he walked up to clap Shinji on the back. “So we're making up for it now!” He took over steering the birthday boy from Misato, leading him towards the head of the dining table and applying gentle pressure to Shinji's shoulders to make him take a seat.

Asuka nodded to Hikari, who then ducked into the lounge room. She returned a moment later _very_ carefully carrying a tray, upon which sat a sight that made Shinji's eyes shoot wide open. Asuka thought she saw Misato begin to drool in anticipation.

The first cake the two teenage girls had made would have likely been acceptable to anybody else, and the class representative had suggested sticking with it, but Asuka had insisted on making the second since they had more experience. The first cake was shared out amongst both their friends and Hikari's family, who declared it tasty. Despite examining the second cake so close she almost got some on her nose, even the perfectionist in Asuka could not find a single fault with it. That cake was now being lowered almost reverentially onto the table in front of Shinji.

As Toji and Kensuke brought in the presents, depositing them on the other side of the table, Shinji drank in the sight of the beautifully prepared cake. His reaction alone made all the effort worthwhile to Asuka.

“This is a...” he softly began.

“I said the name of it a week or so ago.” Asuka leaned on the table next to him. “Can you remember it, Shinji?” she asked with a grin.

Shinji squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. It took a few tries before he could pronounce the words to her satisfaction, but with a few hints he finally managed to say, “ _ Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte,” _ and beamed at her when she congratulated him on the almost perfect pronunciation.

“Yeah yeah,” Toji said with a sigh, but he was clearly happy that Shinji was in good spirits. “Now that you can name what you're about to eat, let's get those candles in.”

As Hikari carefully arranged the birthday candles, Shinji wondered out loud if they had made it themselves. Asuka said that it was mostly her effort, with the class representative chipping in a little, but the tone of her voice made it clear she was joking, and Hikari simply smiled and shook her head in exasperation as the last candle was set.

The stove lighter was brought out, and as Asuka lit the candles the party guests launched into what sounded like the most broken English version of 'Happy Birthday to You' she had ever heard. Even Misato was singing the same way, so  she shrugged and assumed it was a Japanese thing.

When the singing died down, Asuka patted Shinji on the shoulder and said, “Right, make this a good wish, Shinji!” She then leaned down and added in a very low whisper, “Especially since this is your first one in a very long time.” She shook her head almost imperceptibly when the boy's eyes flicked towards his friends for a split second, and felt some tension drain out of him as he was reassured that Asuka was still the only one that knew about his lack of birthday celebrations.

Shinji closed his eyes as Asuka straightened back up and took her hand off his shoulder. He dropped his chin onto his chest as he thought for a long half-minute before opening his eyes once more. Positioned as she was behind him, Asuka completely missed the glance thrown her way right before Shinji inhaled deeply.

And blew out all the candles in a single breath.

Right as three different cellphones began to ring.

Dread reached even Rei's eyes, as all three pulled out their phones. The two pilot's phones showed only automated text messages from NERV calling them in immediately, while Misato put hers to her ear and growled, “This had better not be a damn surprise drill! I told you, anything short of a-” She froze. The reason for the interruption was obvious as Asuka looked back down at her phone, trying to will the message out of existence.

But the sound of the Angel alarms now ringing through the city killed any lingering doubt in her mind. The Third Revenant had definitely arrived.

And the Second Child wentballistic.

The sound of angry Germanic swearing was nearly enough to drown out the alarms.


	22. Chapter 22

_"Das Arschloch ist tot! Sowas. Von. Tot! Der steht nicht mehr auf, weil ich ihn zerreiße!"_

Asuka swore loudly as she left the apartment, and a Section Two agent came to see what the commotion was. He beat a hasty retreat after almost getting punched in the face as the enraged Second Child passed him on her way to Misato's car, cursing the entire time.

_"Der ganze schöne Tag im Arsch weil dieser Flachwichser von Möchtegerngott nicht weiß, wann es genug ist!"_

Shinji still didn't know what was going on, except that it was clearly bad news. His queries had fallen on deaf ears as Misato switched into military mode and began ordering the kids around, and Asuka's tirade was clearly starting to scare him, especially since he didn't understand most of what she was saying. Hikari had quickly covered the cake back up before being the last one out the door.

_"Wenn ich mit dem fertig bin, sieht was die mit mir gemacht haben aus wie ein gottverdammter Strandurlaub!"_

The three teenagers clambered into Misato's car, and it was soon racing through the city towards NERV. Rei was in the front passenger seat, looking visibly agitated, while Shinji was in the back seat next to a German girl who was now punctuating nearly every word that came out of her mouth by bringing her fist down hard on the door's armrest.

_"Ich werde den verdammten Drecksack mit bloßen Händen zerreißen!"_

As the car approached the NERV entrance at a high rate of speed, Rei finally spoke up. “ _Bitte beruhige dich_ , Asuka.”

_"Und dann werde ich-... Häh?"_

The attention of the other two teens was drawn towards Rei, who had just silenced Asuka's ten minute rant with three words. Misato could only glance sideways for a split second before returning her focus to her driving. The guards, used to how the Commander drove, already had the gate open well in advance of her arrival. The sports car shot past them, and Misato finally applied the brakes and slid perfectly into a parking spot, despite the lack of necessity of such an act.

“Okay, let's go,” she ordered as she stepped out. “Rei, Asuka, you know the drill. Shinji, stay with me.” Without waiting for a response, she strode quickly to the elevator, the teens trailing along in her wake.

“Could somebody please tell me what's going on?!” Shinji practically begged as the elevator door closed.

“Isn't it obvious, dummy?” Asuka gruffly replied, arms folded and staring at the door. “We're about to be attacked.”

Now slightly less worried, Rei said, “The Mass Production Evangelions have been... appropriated by Adam, and he is sending them against us.”

The Second Child nodded grimly. “And we're going to put them down for good.” She looked sidelong at Shinji, who was now pale faced and wide-eyed. A glance downward showed that, yes, his hand was spasming again. She unfolded her arms and placed her hands on the boy's shoulders. “Relax,” she said. “We've already killed two of them.” Trying to put on a reassuring grin, she then added, “I'm getting my revenge for what they did to me.”

One of Misato's hands joined Asuka's on his left shoulder. “You don't  _need_ to fight, Shinji. These two have been doing very well.  But it will still be safer for you down here with us .”

“But... how? The Evas were...” Shinji trailed off, before scrunching his eyes closed and twisting his head away from Asuka. She had a fairly good idea what had just come to his mind, especially after what she had just foolishly reminded him off, and she squeezed his shoulders as the boy shuddered.

“Long, confusing story _extremely_ short, we have them all back,” Misato said. The elevator door opened, and she sighed. “I promise I'll tell you everything tonight, okay?” The First and Second Children went on to the change rooms, while Shinji followed Misato in a daze towards the command centre.

* * *

“I'll be honest, I'd forgotten that you knew German,” Asuka remarked as she slipped into her bright red plugsuit. “Came as a bit of a surprise to hear it come out of your mouth.” Enough of a surprise to stop the redhead's rant and bring her back down to earth.

Though she was still going to eviscerate the Revenant for interrupting the party. _That_ still hadn't changed.

Rei stood up to make the final adjustments of her own loose plugsuit before pressing the button on her wrist that sealed it around her body. “I know the written language well enough to read it,” she replied. “But I do not believe I could hold a deeply intellectual conversation with you.”

“Yeah, I've seen those science books you read,” Asuka said, recalling the brick-thick volumes the First Child had occasionally been reading the previous year. She stabbed a thumb at her chest as she added, “If you ever need a hand with speaking German, just ask me. I'm already planning on teaching your brother anyway.”

A smile grew on  Rei's face, and she nodded in agreement as the two left the changing room, heading directly for the Evangelion cages. Asuka briefly wondered whether the smile was caused by her offer, or if it was because Rei would be spending more time with Shinji. She  _had_ been rather monopolising the boy's time, after all.

When they reached the cages, the head of Unit-02's tech crew smartly saluted the Second Child and said, “Give 'em hell, Pilot Soryu!”

“You're goddamn right I will,” Asuka said as she returned the salute with a feral grin, and climbed into the entry plug, while Rei ran on to her own Evangelion.

Within minutes, she once more felt like a giant.

“ _73%. I wonder why,”_ came the dry remark from Misato as Unit-02 came online. _“And Rei is sitting at... 70%.”_

“Not bad, First,” Asuka said with what might have been grudging approval in her voice. “Looks like Shinji's been a good influence on both of us.”

“ _That is to be expected,”_ Rei replied. The smile on her face was wider now. _“We are both happier. Even with what is currently in our Evas, it is clear that-”_

“Uh, hey,” Asuka interrupted with a glance towards the video screen displaying the command centre. “Let's... _not_ talk about that right now, okay?”

The smile lessened as Rei picked up on what her fellow pilot meant.  _“Oh. Yes, of course.”_

There was a loud rumble of machinery as the Evangelions were moved to the launch cradle. In the time since the previous attack, more repair work had been completed on the Evangelion launch system. It would still take a very long time to bring it back to normal, but now there were more exits available in case sudden deployment to a specific area was needed.

“ _The target is coming from the same point again_ ,” Misato said as the behemoths were being moved. _“You'll be deploying at the same co-ordinates as last time, but don't expect the fight to be just as easy.”_

“ _Affirmative. They will have learnt and attempted to adapt,”_ replied the First Child.

“ _Exactly. We'll be sending up extra weaponry for you, and we even have some of the static defenses finally repaired. It's not much, but every bit counts. You two ready?”_ Upon receiving affirmatives from both pilots, Misato almost yelled, “ _Launch Evangelions!_ ”

The second the order left her mouth, the two Evangelions were already shooting up to the surface.

* * *

The waiting always got to Asuka in the time between deployment and engagement. Behind her, Rei had already set up on the hill, and VTOL craft hovered close to the bay. There was nothing to do for the time being except wait. The seconds dragged by like hours as she waited for the enemy to make landfall. But all she could do was grit her teeth and bear it. Her Evangelion's giant red fists tightened around the pair of Progressive Axes it carried. She had briefly considered the Sonic Glaive again, but the axes were much more... suitable for this fight.

Nobody had batted an eye when she had stomped over to the armoury building at the edge of the city and pulled out two weapons. Her anger at the interruption was known possibly throughout the entire NERV base by now.

Finally, Asuka hit the comm switch. “What's the ETA on this damn thing?” she exasperatedly asked. “It's interrupting my plans and doesn't even have the decency to show up quickly!”

“ _Two minutes,”_ was the reply from Makoto Hyuga.

“Ugh!” The Second Child threw her hands up and slumped back in her chair. She needed a diversion, and one was helpfully provided to her only a few seconds later.

“ _H-hey, Asuka? Good luck out there.”_

She sat back up as the voice of Shinji reached her ears. Her face wore a soft smile at his concern for an instant before it hardened into a smirk. “Luck? Just who the hell do you think I am?” On the video screen, Asuka saw Shinji drop his head as a soft chuckle escaped him. “But... thanks. What about Rei though? Not gonna wish your sister luck as well?”

“ _Oh! Right! S-sorry Rei!”_ The boy flushed with embarrassment at forgetting the First Child. _“And good luck to you too!”_ Rei turned a warm smile on him but was unable to respond, as Makoto suddenly cut in.

“ _The target has increased speed! Estimated time is now fifteen seconds!”_

“ _Prepare to engage!”_ Misato ordered. _“Get this done quickly, I want to try some of that cake!”_

Asuka gave the screen a thumbs up, before closing the channel and focusing on the bay. Already she could see the water starting shift aside as...

_'Wait, that's not just displacement. Is it parting the water?'_

Somebody had obviously given the VTOLs an order, as they immediately opened fire on the disturbance in the water. The familiar orange barrier, previously just a vague hint of light, flared brilliantly as it easily deflected the munitions. The Revenant was almost jogging as it moved easily onto dry land, having used the field to push away the water for ease of movement. It was striding directly toward Unit-02 and not paying the aircraft any more attention than it would a fly buzzing around its head, even as they circled around and began to pepper its back with cannons and missiles.

Rei spoke up, her image flashing to life in the corner of Asuka's eye.  _“This Revenant appears to have armour.”_

Turning a confused look on the First Child, Asuka replied, “It's an Evangelion. They  _all_ have armour.”

“ _Look closer.”_

With a frown, the redhead did as she was told. A few button presses zoomed in her view on the target -which the MAGI marked as Unit-07- and allowed her to make out some detail behind the interference of the enemy's AT-Field. Its torso and upper arms were sheathed in what appeared at first glance to be bronze plate. Before Asuka could analyse any further, Unit-07 broke into a run as it charged at her.

In response she activated her external speakers, turned them up to maximum volume and yelled,  _ "Na komm schon! Wenn du aufs Fressbrett willst, werd ich nur zu gerne abliefern!" _ Unit-02 took off towards the incoming enemy, just as a brilliant beam lanced past the red Evangelion and impacted against the orange barrier of the Revenant. It only slowed  the Revenant down slightly, but proved enough of a distraction to give Asuka an edge as she rammed her own AT-Field into that of her enemy.

Over the incredibly discordant sound of two AT-Fields fighting for supremacy, she barely made out the disappointed sound that Rei made as Unit-00 cycled the Positron Rifle.

“ _Its AT-Field is much stronger,”_ the bluenette muttered.

“Tell me about it,” Asuka snarkily replied, before returning her concentration to bringing the enemy's shield down. The axe that was previously in her Evangelion's left hand was now magnetically holstered on its right hip as its arm stretched out, fingers splayed as the Second Child tried to will the Revenant's AT-Field to collapse. The Revenant had both its arms out to counter the force pressing against it.

“ _If you can turn it around slightly, I can fire at its flank while it is focusing on you,”_ Rei suggested.

“I'll try.”

Unit-02 raised one giant foot, and slowly stepped to the right. After a moment, Unit-07 duplicated the move. Another step, another copied step. From the outside, the scene appeared as if both giants were at the start of a duel, circling each other and waiting to see who would blink first.

_'Just a little more,'_ Asuka thought to herself as the circle was nearly completed. She had originally planned to only force the Revenant to present its side to Rei, but the white behemoth was continuing to strafe around her. Now she was standing still, merely twisting her Evangelion to keep Unit-07 in front of her. Its back was now completely unprotected and facing towards the hill.

And Rei took the shot.

Later, it would be determined that  this Revenant somehow knew exactly what was going to happen. It certainly couldn't have seen the Positron Rifle fire, and even from that distance the sound would likely have not had time to  reach whatever ears it possessed. Whatever the reason, a half-second after the round erupted from the barrel of Rei's weapon,  the Revenant was ducking to the side, leaving Asuka staring in horror at the white-hot beam heading directly for her.

All she could do was curse.

* * *

The occupants of the command centre could do nothing but stare up at the giant screen in front of them as the errant beam struck Unit-02. Its AT-Field flared brilliantly, and the screen automatically dimmed the view to avoid blinding everybody. For a moment the orange barrier seemed like it would weather the assault, but then it shattered, allowing the stream of positrons to impact against the torso of the red giant, catching the outstretched arm at the same time.

Unit-02 flew backwards for several hundred meters before crashing to earth, the power cable connector leaving a wide gouge in the landscape as it slid along the ground. When it finally came to a halt, dust and smoke billowed around the fallen Evangelion, obscuring the horrified watchers' view.

“ _ASUKA!!”_

Shinji's scream seemed to knock the NERV officers out of their daze, and Ritsuko immediately began shouting orders, demanding the status of the Second Child. The three technicians forced their gazes away from the carnage and back to their screens as they began rapidly typing out commands and shouting reports.

“Left arm and frontal armour almost completely destroyed!”

“Umbilical connector damaged, Unit-02 is on battery backup!”

Meanwhile, Misato turned her attention to Shinji, who looked even more terrified than the adults. She moved closer to him and squeezed his shoulder, noticing how white his knuckles were as they clenched tighter than they had likely ever been before. Desperate to focus on anything but the possible death of one of her kids, the woman's mind instead noted how tall the boy was getting. Giving no sign that he even noticed the physical contact, Shinji yelled Asuka's name again.

And got a response.

_"Ooh... Hör auf zu schreien, du Dödel; mir geht's gut,"_ the Second Child groaned.

In the command centre, fear turned to joy and relief as most of the tension left the room. Most of what Asuka said went over their heads, but her tone of voice said enough. Both Shinji and Misato bowed their heads and thanked the gods for the miracle.

The First Child's voice cut in.  _“S-sorry Asuka!”_ she said, sounding very much unlike her usual self as she began to apologise profusely for her mistake, but Asuka cut her off after a few seconds.

“ _Knock it off, Wondergirl, you're almost as bad as him.”_

The remark brought a relieved smile to Misato's face. If Asuka was talking like that, then she was alright. A new screen activated, showing the redhead tiredly sitting up and clutching her chest while her left arm dangled at her side.

On the screen, the blips representing the NERV aircraft converged rapidly on the Revenant, firing everything they had as they attempted to cover Unit-02. The munitions that didn't explode harmlessly against its AT-Field were just as useless against the orange armour cladding  its  torso, and any damage to the arms or legs was healed almost instantly.

But the pilots refused to give in. Even when the Revenant hurled a giant fistful of debris at one of them, forcing the gunship to limp away while trailing smoke, the rest remained steadfast.

“The Revenant is entering the dust cloud!” Shigeru Aoba reported. On the screen, Asuka's eyes shot wide open and she reached for the controls, her left arm lagging well behind the right but eventually making it.

“Unit-00 has abandoned its position and deployed its progressive knife. It is advancing on Unit-02 and the target,” said Makoto.

Misato turned to him. “Of course. Rei can't risk a shot now. Especially not after the mistake she just made,” she added in a much quieter voice, and Makoto grimly nodded.

“Careful, Rei! We can't see what's going on in there-” Ritsuko began.

A loud curse cut off the sub-commander.  _ “ _ _Scheiße_ _!” _

Misato stormed over to the computer panel. “Asuka?!” she called out.

_ "Ah! Hau..."  _ There was a metallic clanging, _ "ab, du Arsch!" _

The cloud was clearing, thanks in part to the helicopter blades of the gunships forcing the dust and smoke away, and the bridge crew could finally see what was happening. Unit-02 was struggling to its feet and brandishing its remaining axe as the Revenant approached, unphased by the red Evangelion's wild attacks as it slowly advanced and occasionally using a forearm to knock aside some of the swings.

And  the Revenant was licking its lips. 

Misato shuddered as she saw the red and disgusting tongue flick over the ridiculous-looking lips as they pulled back into a grin. Why did SEELE choose to make the Mass Production Evangelions so strange-looking? Brilliant white paint with what looked like the loudest red lipstick in the world, on an eyeless face that was almost all mouth and neck.

_'What big teeth you have, granny! All the better to eat you with, my dear!'_

“Misato.” The sound of her name pulled the Commander out of her dark musing. She turned around just as the image of Unit-00 reached down to pick up the Progressive Axe Unit-02 had dropped, before accelerating towards the Revenant as the VTOLs ceased fire and retreated.

“What is it, Shinji?” Misato asked.

Unit-00 hurled the axe it had just collected. Though not exactly designed for such an act, the weapon still crunched into the back of the orange shell protecting the Revenant. While it didn't fully penetrate the strange armour, the attack successfully drew  the Revenant's attention towards the rapidly approaching blue Evangelion. Unit-02 took the opportunity to retreat and retrieve a fresh power umbilical, before returning to the fray.

“I... I have to go out there,” Shinji quietly said, his eyes locked on the screen.

Ever since the news that her boy had woken up from his strange coma, Misato had been both anticipating and dreading this moment. It was no secret that Shinji hated everything about Evangelion. And yet, time after time, he had forced aside that hatred and climbed into the machine that had killed his own mother and stolen her soul.

Before, she had been proud of Shinji for putting his life on the line, but now? Now she just wished she could pilot herself. “Is this what you really want to do?” she asked.

“No...” The Third Child shook his head. “But it's what I _need_ to do.”

“Are you sure, Shinji?” Misato asked, already knowing what the answer would be. She exhaled sadly when her foster son nodded, and turned to Ritsuko. “Prepare Unit-01 for emergency launch,” she ordered.

The sub-commander and the three technicians all looked at her in shock for a moment before leaping to obey the Supreme Commander of NERV. Her expression told them that she would brook no delays.

“We'll need to get the other two teams to assist,” Ritsuko advised. “Unit-01 has only had a skeleton crew for a long time.”

“Do whatever you have to,” Misato replied. To Shinji, she said, “Go get suited up and head to the cage. The crews should have Unit-01 ready as soon as you get there.”

Shinji ran out of the command centre, and the Commander frowned. The moment she had mentioned the crews, there had been a look of fear on his face. He was already willing to get into his Evangelion once more, so what was he afraid of? The frown deepened as she looked down and saw several spots of blood on the ground. A tiny puddle of red had formed around the boy's left shoe, and a trail of slightly bloody footprints led out of the room.

His clenched fist had  apparently driven  his own fingernails into the palm of his hand.

Resolving to look into it later when there was spare time to worry, Misato turned her attention back to the screen, which showed the blue and red Evangelions trading blows with the Revenant. She cheered up slightly when she recognised what Rei and Asuka were doing. One of the simulations they regularly ran the two pilots through involved almost this exact scenario. Apart from the damage to Unit-02, the scene looked almost exactly like they were still training.

The Revenant was being not very co-operative though. And it was cheating with that odd orange armour. “What _is_ that stuff?” she wondered aloud as Unit-02's Progressive Axe skittered along its surface, denied a solid hit due to Unit-07 bending out of the way of the attack. “Looks like it was stolen from an ancient history museum.”

“I'm not sure, but I want a sample of it,” Ritsuko remarked. “It might be solidified LCL, I've seen dried up patches of the stuff that looked very similar. Though it's rather surprising that it's holding strong against their attacks, considering how brittle dry LCL is.”

“Call it magic, then.”

“Not if I want to still be known as a _scientist_ , Commander.”

“But Rits...” Misato developed a cheeky grin. “'Any sufficiently advanced-”

“ _ Don't even start with that!” _ Ritsuko interrupted, forcing down the urge to bang her head against a wall.  She only just remembered to add, "...Commander."

* * *

Rei, less accustomed to fighting with two weapons, was alternating strikes with her own knife and Asuka's second axe. The Revenant ducked and dodged as best as it could, defying the efforts of the pilots to put it down, but that meant it had little opportunity to fight back. Its claws only occasionally managed to strike Unit-00, but did nothing more than remove a few layers of armour at a time. There were several chunks missing out of its own armour, and with both Evangelions its AT-Field was easily neutralised, but they still couldn't land a decent hit.

Asuka was breathing heavily, trying to ignore the sympathetic pain she felt from Unit-02. Her Evangelion's torso armour was practically non-existent, and its left forearm was nothing but a useless charred appendage, but she couldn't leave Rei to fight the Revenant alone. Even if her own body felt like somebody had thrown boiling water on her arm and then shoved the pot into her chest, she couldn't let up.

This Revenant had interrupted her perfect day, caused a friendly fire incident, and was now practically mocking them as it wove around their weapon strikes. Oh, and it had attempted to eat her again.

Asuka Langley-Soryu was getting angry.

Well, angri _er_ .

A mental command opened the spike launcher on Unit-02's right shoulder, but Asuka held her fire. There were only a limited number of rounds in the weapon, and she didn't want to waste them. Or cause more friendly fire.

The redhead found herself thanking Misato for the training she and the First Child had gone through this year. Without a word of communication, Rei had divined her intent and focused on keeping  the Revenant's attention through faster and more aggressive weapon swings as the red Evangelion backed away slightly. It was not a pace somebody could keep up for very long, and Asuka knew she had to act soon. Even as she watched, the Revenant tore another chunk of armour off of Unit-00's torso.

“Misato,” she said, calling up the connection to the command centre. “So far all these bastards have kept the damage I inflicted on them last year. Which one is  this ? How did I cripple this one?”

Her commander and foster mother raised an eyebrow at the question, but understanding quickly dawned. She called to Ritsuko, who had been quietly conferring with Maya Ibuki. Asuka caught something about an 'activation' before the scientist looked up at her and replied,  _ “You cut off its right arm and broke its neck. Those  _ _ might _ _ still be its weak points, even under the armour.” _ With a glance at Misato, Ritsuko turned back to Maya.

“Right, thanks.” Asuka got a dismissive wave before she cut the connection. She turned her attention back to the melee. Now that she knew the injuries this one had suffered, she saw the dodging Revenant in a different light. It was clear now that  the Revenant was favouring its right arm, shying away from attacks on that side far more than any on its left. Its head was also shifting as little as possible, the Revenant instead moving its entire body to avoid attacks to the head and neck.

Now that she had the measure of the beast, Asuka began to plan. Another mental command called up a sub-system she hadn't used since NERV Berlin. Multiple targeting reticules appeared in her vision as the spike launcher's dedicated aiming system came online.

It was a system she hadn't needed to use except in the early days of simulation sessions, just to show that she knew how to operate it. Her fighting style ensured that she could activate and launch the spikes in seconds, and be almost guaranteed a hit without needing to waste time aiming.

But this wasn't the time or place for 'almost'.

Asuka concentrated and the reticules started moving, following her line of sight as she focused intently on the right shoulder joint of  her target , but its movements were hindering her attempt. “Rei, slow down a little,” she requested. “Make it look like you're getting tired.”

“ _Affirmative,”_ was the cool reply from Rei.

“And be ready to get out of the way in case I miss.”

“ _...Affirmative.”_

Unit-00 began to lag in its attacks, the swings becoming slower and more desperate as the Evangelion slowly backed away. The Revenant seemed to relax as it perceived the apparent weakness of its target, and matched Unit-00's retreat step for step.

Giving Asuka the chance for a solid lock on its shoulder.

The launcher fired two bursts in rapid succession as Asuka emptied half of its magazine. Three deadly spikes, as long as a family car, crossed the distance in a fraction of a second as they broke the speed of sound, before shattering the shell around Unit-07's right shoulder as they tore through both layers of armour. The second trio arrived moments afterwards, shredding the unprotected flesh and almost cutting the arm completely off.

As the Revenant recoiled in pain, Asuka charged up behind it, dropping her Progressive Axe to free Unit-02's remaining hand so that she could latch on to the enemy's dangling arm. She pulled it horizontally as she leaned her Evangelion backwards, placing a giant red boot against the Revenant's torso for extra leverage as she ripped its arm the rest of the way off. The force sent the crippled behemoth careening towards Unit-00.

Who separated its head from its body with a well placed swipe of the borrowed axe. The blue Evangelion almost seemed to become a ballerina as it used the energy of the swing to pirouette around and deliver one more attack, putting all its energy into a final slice at  the Revenant's legs.

Deprived of most of its limbs, the Revenant could do nothing but fall over, thrashing wildly with its remaining arm as red-orange liquid spurted out of its severed body parts.

“Wondergirl, you had better finish it off,” Asuka said. “The core explosion will probably be too much for my Eva.”

Unit-00 nodded at her. The First Child delivered the coup-de-grace as soon as Unit-02 was out of the blast radius, putting another resurrected Mass Production Evangelion out of everybody's misery. What remained of the Third Revenant swiftly collapsed into LCL, heading back into the sea in flagrant violation of liquid physics as it flowed easily over any obstruction.

A few minutes later, just as Asuka was about to lock her Evangelion into the lift to return to the Geofront, Rei called out to her. She turned, and saw a surprising sight.

Unit-00 was bowing to her.

“Rei... what are you doing?” Asuka hesitantly inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“ _I wish to apologise for injuring you.”_ Inside the cockpit, Rei herself was also bowing as best as she could in the pilot chair, her voice clipped and precise, as formal as if she were facing a superior officer. _“I focused too much on eliminating the target and did not notice that you were in the path of my shot.”_

“What, this?” Asuka chuckled as her Evangelion gestured to the blackened armour on its torso and arm. “Barely felt a thing. My AT-Field was still fully deployed ahead of me, so that took most of it.”

“ _Regardless, I do not feel right simply letting this incident pass.”_

“...What, you want me to shoot you back?”

“ _Whatever it would take to set this straight,”_ Rei replied without a hint of hesitation.

“ _The hell you will!”_ Ritsuko suddenly and angrily cut in. “ _Evas are expensive! It's already going to take money we can't afford to waste to fix Unit-02! Now both of you get back here!”_ Through the comm screen, Asuka thought she saw steam shooting out of the mad woman's nostrils. But a stranger sight was the downcast look on Misato's face in the background, despite another Revenant being vanquished.

Asuka snorted into her gloved fist at the scientist's overreaction. “Wasn't going to do that anyway. But answer me this, Sub-Commander: What is Rei's sync ratio at the moment?”

“ _Huh?”_ The question threw Ritsuko off for a moment, but she quickly responded. _“74%. Why?”_

“Oh... nothing really.” With a smirk, Asuka cut the connection. To Rei, she said, “Get up.”

Unit-00 slowly straightened it's back as Unit-02 strode towards it. In her entry plug, Asuka raised a hand, the move copied perfectly by her Evangelion.

And slapped Unit-00 across the back of the head.

Rei winced in pain, rubbing the back of her head as Asuka said, “Be more careful next time, okay?” before walking Unit-02 back to the Evangelion lift.

* * *

Asuka was looking forward to taking a fast shower to wash the LCL out of her hair before heading home, but Misato's appearance at the bottom of the steps leading from the walkway to the catwalk told her right away that things weren't going to be that simple. The woman looked incredibly worried about something as she handed Asuka a towel, with which she began to quickly wipe the orange gunk off, paying more attention to her long hair. With the length of her hair, Asuka always felt like her head was far heavier than it should be for a few minutes after exiting the entry plug.

Cutting it was entirely out of the question. Asuka was _proud_ of her hair, and an inconvenience was not enough to change her opinion.

When she no longer felt like somebody had tied weights to her hair, Asuka said, “Can we at least put off looking into the friendly fire incident until tomorrow? I really want to head back to the apartment and get our friends back for the party.” As the First Child walked up to them from her own Evangelion, Asuka waved a hand at Rei as she tried to get out the first words of another apology. “Besides, Rei's already apologised, her punishment has been delivered, let's just go, okay?”

It had been a good guess as to the reason for Misato's mood, but unfortunately it was wrong.

Misato cracked a small smile, but there was no humour in it. “You'd probably find it a bit hard to have a party without the guest of honour.”

She now had the full attention of both girls. Asuka cautiously asked, “Did something happen to Shinji while we were fighting?” Next to the redhead, Rei paled slightly.

After a moment of thought, Misato waved a hand back and forth in a 'kind of' gesture and said, “It's... more like something _didn't_ happen.” At the confused looks of the two pilots, she sighed. “Just come with me, and I'll show you.”

Asuka was half-expecting Misato to lead them all the way to the medical bay, so stopping only a short distance away in front of Unit-01 brought confusion to her features. That, and the unusually large amount of people bustling about in the Evangelion Cage, Ritsuko included, running diagnostics. Normally, Unit-01's cage was almost completely empty. Asuka looked up towards the neck of the Evangelion, where an entry plug was positioned to be inserted. There hadn't been a need for one since Ritsuko had suggested placing a semi-comatose Shinji in the plug for her scans.

Asuka frowned as some of the answer to the problem presented itself. “Shinji tried to join us, didn't he?” she asked. A jolt of fear shot through her at the possibility that Shinji had been absorbed again. But the mood in the cage didn't reflect such a dire scenario, and neither did Misato's reaction. She settled down slightly, but mentally kicked herself for what she felt was her fault in the recent fight. If she had been on the ball...

“Unit-01 refused to activate,” Rei added, correctly guessing what had happened. Her expression had turned fearful for a split second but now it was merely grim, possibly thinking along the same lines as her fellow pilot.

“Yeah,” Misato replied, ice creeping into her voice as she stared up at the face of Unit-01. “No activation, no synchronisation. It was as if Unit-01 just decided to... _ignore_ us, like a petulant child.”

Not so long ago, Asuka would have made a quip about the purple Evangelion having the same attitude as its pilot. An image rose unbidden in her mind of Unit-01 putting on giant headphones and sulking in its cage. If the mood in the cage was brighter, she might have been willing to pass along such a ludicrous idea. “So where's Shinji now?” she asked out loud.

In response, Misato nodded her head in the direction of the entry plug. “He didn't come out when we ejected the plug. We know he's not hurt or anything, but-” She had to stop talking as Asuka stepped towards the gantry leading up to the entry plug. A couple of technicians looked curiously at the redhead, before moving out of her way. They knew better than to impede the Second Child's progress, especially with _that_ look on her face. The Commander standing nearby only slightly factored into the mens' sense of self-preservation.

The dark entrance to the plug seemed to loom ahead of Asuka, and as she noticed her feet were slowing down she shook herself hard, causing her still-damp hair to fly about her face with a few strands sticking to her face. There was nothing to be concerned about. The people in the cage weren't acting like there was an emergency, more like something out of the ordinary had just occurred.

But as she thought more about the situation, Asuka hit upon an obvious realisation while ducking her head and finally setting foot inside the entry plug. _'He's going to blame himself for this.'_

The scene inside the metal tube tore at her heart. Shinji was still sitting in the pilot's chair with a despondent look on his face, as his right hand occasionally tugged feebly on the controls and the left remained cradled in his lap.

Asuka moved up into the boy's peripheral vision and waited for a few seconds. When there was no response beyond a slight flicker of his eyes, she raised a hand and tapped hard on the metal wall of the entry plug, loudly adding, “Hey, Third!”

The echoing combination of both a loud, familiar voice and the tapping were enough to bring Shinji out of his daze with a start. He locked eyes with Asuka, who gave him a smirk, before relinquishing his grip on the controls and sinking back into his chair. “Oh, hello,” he mumbled with a sigh.

“I'm not going to bother asking how you're doing,” Asuka replied. “It's pretty obvious just by looking at you.”

Another sigh came from Shinji's mouth. “I failed you again, Asuka.”

“Wait, again? What do you mean?” The redhead folded her arms. “I don't recall you failing... me... before...” She trailed off. Shinji flinched away from her as her blue eyes shot wide open. “You're... you're talking about just before Third Impact... aren't you?” she asked, an accusatory tone beginning to leak into her voice.

He didn't answer, but he didn't need to. It was written all over Shinji's face, even as he tried to turn away from Asuka. She grabbed him by a shoulder, and used her other hand to turn his face back to look at her. “Shinji...” She paused for a moment to phrase the question in a way that hopefully wouldn't cause him to close up. “What happened to you that day?”

Most of the story was already known to her. Shinji had been mentally crushed, almost hoping for somebody to kill him during the invasion. But Misato had managed to get him into the elevator that took him to Unit-01... and then an unexplained gap between that and Unit-01 flying into the sky on wings of light while she bled out after being torn apart.

Since the nightmares that detailed Asuka's death had diminished, thanks largely in part to an unknowing Shinji, she had been plagued much less by what caused them. Now, though, she felt like she wouldn't be able to sleep until the truth was revealed.

It was time for that gap to be filled.

Perhaps understanding that neither of them would be going anywhere until Asuka got her answer, Shinji began to haltingly speak of what had happened on the eve of Third Impact. The redhead listened with half an ear and a frown. Something still seemed to be missing, as he had started a short time before the JSSDF and Misato found him underneath the stairs, already in a  near-suicidal state.

_'Rei said there were four things that sent him over the edge. I know three... Was whatever he skipped past the final thing?'_

Asuka's ears perked up as Shinji's story reached the point where he and Misato reached the elevator. She made a face when he mentioned the kiss and promise that the then-Major had given him, but it softened as he mused that both he and Misato knew the promise was hollow. They had both known she was about to die. The woman was simply out of ideas for how to motivate the emotionally destroyed young man.

As tears began flowing freely down Shinji's face, the Second Child's face turned unreadable as the story went on, through his realisation that Misato had just died because of him, and onto the terrible sight of Unit-01 covered from head to toe in Bakelite. Her iron grip on his body relaxed somewhat, as the apparent reason for his absence became clear.

But then Unit-01 easily broke free.

“Bakelite was no match for it. I could have _made_ it break out at any time,” Shinji slowly said. “But instead all I did was sit there. I gave up right at the end, when I could have reached you in time.” He looked up at Asuka and sniffled. “You died, all because I was feeling like shit. How pathetic is that?”

Her hands pulled away, letting Shinji slump against his chair. As he began to mumble apologies, Asuka folded her arms and slowly stepped around the boy as she tried to think.

How was she supposed to react to this information? Should she condemn him for his inaction, _punish_ him for giving up and letting her die in a most brutal fashion? Or should she let it go, and acknowledge that a suicidally depressed boy who had simply let an enemy soldier almost execute him was in no fit state to do anything, let alone pilot a giant robot against nine enemy Evangelions.

“So... That's what happened...” came a familiar female voice from just outside the entry plug, causing Asuka to jump and almost yelp in shock.

“Damnit, Misato!” she angrily hissed, poking her head out of the hatch. “This was a _private_ conversation!”

“As both your foster mother and superior officer, I believe I have at least some authority to listen in.” Misato's voice dropped, barely carrying to Asuka's ears. “And now I know why Shinji couldn't help you.”

The redhead snorted. “Couldn't, or wouldn't?” she sarcastically asked, stepping out and leaning against the railing of the gantry next to the older woman.

“It's what you're asking yourself right now, isn't it?”

Asuka growled as Misato hit the nail on the head, and continued hammering; “Look, if a shrink were here, they'd be telling us that somebody in his mental state would barely be allowed out of sight, possibly locked in a room with no sharp objects.”

Misato tapped the side of her head as she continued. “With a clear mind, something probably _nobody_ had that day, there would have been no problems, and we could have beaten SEELE back.” She grinned mirthlessly. “But despite how many times he got back up, my boy kept getting knocked down until he couldn't get up any more. Ask yourself this, Asuka, and be honest: Would you have done the same in Shinji's situation?”

There was a long period of silence before Asuka dully replied, “...I don't know.”

“Of course you don't. I don't either,” Misato admitted with a shrug. “We're not the exact same person. We all act differently. You already know how suspiciously similar the lives of you and Shinji were. He did things that you didn't, and vice versa. Just imagine what things would be like if your lives were swapped around.”

Asuka thought for a moment, and then had to stifle a snort of amusement as she imagined Shinji doing some of the things she had done, such as The Great Shinji Ikari, the college-educated hotshot pilot of Unit-02, meeting The Invincible Asuka Langley-Soryu on the deck of _Over the Rainbow_ and giving the same speech she had done. It didn't help that her mind's eye stubbornly refused to see him in anything but the same hat and yellow sundress she had worn as well.

“Oh _Gott,”_ she finally snickered. At the woman's raised eyebrow, she mentioned what she had just thought of.

Misato grinned hugely at the mental image, happy that the mood had been lifted. “So how do you feel about him now?” she asked. As Asuka began to turn red-faced, she pretended not to notice and added, “What do you think he deserves? Your anger, or your help?”

It didn't take the Second Child long to answer this time. “My help.”

“Good.” Misato jerked a thumb at the entry plug hatch. “Now get in there and help him out. We have cake to eat.” With her piece said, she walked back down to the catwalk and out of the cage. Rei looked up at Asuka for a moment before following Misato.

Asuka watched them leave, and stepped back into the entry plug. To her surprise, Shinji was sitting upright, looking much more alert than when she had walked away from him. He turned in his seat to face her, and... was that a  _smile_ on his slightly red face? She cautiously approached, unsure of what to make of this attitude shift.

Oh wait, they were in a mostly hollow metal tube. Shinji had likely heard almost everything she and Misato had said about him. Perhaps they should have moved further away... but then he wouldn't be sitting here  _smiling_ at her after remembering such a hopeless moment of his life.

“Well, you certainly seem to have cheered up,” Asuka remarked.

Shinji scratched the back of his head nervously. “It... um... it was kind of hard not to smile, when I thought about you wearing the same school uniform all the time like I did.”

“Oh?” Asuka raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. “You'd like to see me in that ridiculous getup more often, would you? Got a thing for schoolgirls?”

“Eh... no!” Shinji stammered, his face going through several shades of red and pink. “I-I meant it was funny to imagine you in the boy's outfit!”

“Hah. Like you'd ever get me to wear _that_ thing. You boys have to spend all day looking like you got called away from the cubicle farm. At least us girls get to look like sailors. Still,” Asuka threw her hands up in the air as best as she could in the enclosed space, “Whoever designed Japanese girl uniforms has the be the most perverted person in the entire world!” She would have continued ranting, but Asuka remembered what was still to come that day. “Well, whatever. Let's get out of here, Third.”

Without thinking, she took him by the left hand. She reflexively let go when Shinji let out an involuntary hiss of pain. He tried to deny that anything was wrong, but it was easy to tell that he was lying. Much gentler this time, Asuka took him by the upper arm and pulled him out of the entry plug.

When they were out of the Evangelion cages, Asuka sat him down on a bench near Misato and Rei, slapping the button on his plugsuit to deactivate it. She ordered him to keep his right hand on the suit so that it didn't fall off of him, and present his left hand for inspection. Both Asuka and Misato uttered a curse when Shinji revealed a hand that was almost completely stained red up to the wrist. As the redhead began to question him on how he injured himself, Misato cut her off.

“That doesn't matter right now. Let's just take him to medical and get that hand checked before it gets infected.”

* * *

After the blood was washed away, the damage to Shinji's hand was less than it appeared, but still rather surprising to the two female pilots. There were four slightly curved cuts in the palm of his hand, perfectly spaced for his fingernails to have been the cause. The doctor ordered Shinji to both cut his nails, and consider buying a stress ball. Asuka promised to get  _several_ , so she could leave them all over the house for him.

Once his hand was bandaged in waterproof wraps, Shinji was finally allowed time to shower and get changed back into his normal clothes. The moment he stepped out of the change room, Asuka took him by the  _right_ hand this time and dragged him all the way through NERV to Misato's car. Along the way, she phoned Hikari and told her to get the others ready.

It was finally time to resume the party.

And this time,  _nothing_ was going to stand in the way.

* * *

The gate guards were almost caught unawares by Misato's exit, not expecting the woman to zoom out of NERV as fast as she had arrived, if not faster. The rapidly approaching roar of the engine was the only warning the man at the gate controls got. If he had been a second slower, he would have had to face the wrath of an angry woman for delaying her return home to her foster son's birthday party.

And for letting the tires on her precious car get shredded. But mostly for the delay.

Even after several costly defensive driving courses, the Section Two drivers simply couldn't keep up with the blue sports car and its maniacal driver. The head of NERV's security division had eventually thrown up his hands in exasperation and assigned two gunships to guard the Supreme Commander of NERV during her car trips, stating, “Damn the fuel cost, we'd have to pay more to repair the cars anyway.”

If anybody was actually going to pursue the Commander, and be capable and crazy enough to match her manoeuvres, the Section Two head was going to seriously consider hiring them.

Inside the car, Rei appeared to be eagerly looking forward to the party as she sat in the front passenger seat. Asuka was almost bouncing in the back seat, a stark contrast to her attitude during the previous ride. Shinji was slouched low to avoid looking outside, but seemed surprisingly relaxed.

Misato checked the rear view mirror and grinned to herself as the aircraft were forced to slow down and ascend to continue over the city. She didn't know why, but  she found it enjoyable to push Section Two to work harder in their efforts to escort her to and from work. Whoever became the next head of NERV would probably have the greatest drivers in the world protecting them.

When the car reached the apartment building, Asuka had her door open almost before the vehicle had come to a complete stop. As the group made their way to the Katsuragi residence, a certain Section Two agent ducked behind a vending machine as the Second Child walked past in the lobby.

* * *

“Right. No more interruptions. We're having this damn party _now!”_

As soon as Asuka's declaration was finished, she took out a knife and began to cut the  c ake. The first slice went to the guest of honour, and since Misato had been talking about the cake all day, the second went to her.

Shinji spent half a minute admiring his slice, until Asuka looked at him in the middle of cutting a piece for Sakura and asked, “What's the matter, you think the cake is bad?” Apprehension crept into her voice.

“Huh?” Shinji jerked up. “Oh, no! Quite the opposite! You did a wonderful job, Asuka. I almost don't want to eat it because it just looks that great.”

The redhead turned more red at the compliment, before coughing and saying, “W-well, it wasn't all just me. Hikari and I worked on the cake together.”

“Ah. Well then, you _both_ did a wonderful job.”

As Hikari gave her thanks and Asuka stuttered over her own, Shinji used his spoon to dig into the slice, bringing a piece up to his mouth. The moment his lips closed around the morsel, his eyes shot wide open. “No, this is _amazing!_ ” he exclaimed after hastily chewing and swallowing.

Rei was next to try the cake. She had almost the same reaction as Shinji, but took her time to enjoy the mouthful before saying, “I do not believe I have ever tasted something as wonderful as this.”

The compliments did nothing for the Second Child's ability to speak, especially when Misato and the guests weighed in with their own positive feedback. Instead, she stuffed a large piece of cake into her mouth and mumbled something that she hoped would be interpreted as, “You're welcome.”

She was the first person to finish her slice. It really was a great cake. Before it had been cut up, the decoration had been exquisite, thanks to Hikari's idea of practising for quite a while on the test cake. The trial run had ended with a cake that had looked like someone had thrown a whipped cream grenade at it and then tossed a handful of maraschino cherries and chocolate flakes on top, but that hadn't stopped Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari's family from enjoying it.

Asuka's only regrets had been that both the short notice and her age had prevented her from procuring the _Kirschwasser_ needed, as well as the sad fact that she couldn't get her hands on any black cherries, either. German law would state that it was not a true _Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte_ without both ingredients, but at least that didn't matter here.

Next time, Asuka was going to do it a hundred percent  _ right. _

The cake was consumed with great relish, until only a couple of pieces were left. The dishes were cleared away, and colourfully wrapped presents took their place on the table. It took Misato a moment to realise why Rei was starting to look upset as  she looked around the table, until she realised that Rei was the only one at the table without a gift for Shinji. But just as Misato was about to make a suggestion, the First Child's jaw set as she looked back at her.

“Misato, I need your assistance,” she said. “I must go and acquire a present for Shinji.”

Misato, Asuka, and even Shinji insisted that she didn't need to worry about it, but Rei remained resolute. After several minutes of debate, Misato gave up and fetched her keys.

“With the way you drive, at least you'll be back quickly,” Asuka remarked to their retreating backs. She turned back to the table. “Now then, who gets to go first?”

* * *

“Do you have an idea of what you want to get for him, Rei?” Misato asked as the Renault left the apartment block's parking lot. “Or even where to go?”

“Please take me to a department store.”

Misato shrugged, and gunned the engine. There were a couple suitable places, so she headed for the closest one. The NERV plates on her beloved car let her pass by two police vehicles unimpeded, the driver of one simply waving to the woman as she sped past.

Once out of the car, Rei immediately headed for the nearest store map and scanned it intently. As soon as Misato caught up, the girl was off already before she could even guess where Rei was going. She had never seen the First Child so... intent about something while outside of an entry plug. All she could do was follow along as Rei made a beeline for the...

Home appliance department?

“Uh, Rei?” asked Misato uncertainly.

“Yes?” Rei replied, not looking away from the leaflet she had just picked up.

Misato glanced over the girl's shoulder as politely as she could. “What are you looking for?”

“Cooking is one of Shinji's few passions. You have seen how much he enjoys it.” Rei's finger trailed along the sheet as she spoke. “I will give him a gift that will aid with that passion.” She paused for a moment as a thought occurred. “I... would require your permission for this gift though.”

Rei set off once more, passing by several appliances. Soon, they were walking amongst stoves, and the bluenette stopped in front of one that to Misato's eye looked much the same as the ones surrounding it, only with different colours or slightly altered knobs and dials.

“A... stove? Your birthday present to Shinji will be a _stove?_ ” Misato asked incredulously, then sighed. “This is what you wanted my permission for. Replacing an appliance in my apartment.”

To be perfectly fair, the apartment block, along with every other building in the suburb, _had_ been built some time before the fortress city that Tokyo-3 had eventually become. And Misato's attempts at cookery had likely not done her current appliances any favours. There was still one major concern on the woman's mind though, and she voiced it.

“Damn, look at the price on this one,” Misato remarked as she read the price tag. “This might be the most expensive stove in the store. Maybe the entire city...”

“The price does not matter. I can afford it,” Rei replied. A smile was forming on her face as she examined the stove.

“Are you sure? That's a lot of digits.”

The First Child held up her NERV ID card. “For years I have been a test pilot. To avoid suspicion, Gendo Ikari decided that I was to be paid as such. I did not require much to live as I did. Even now, I have not had much reason to touch that money.” She thought to herself, and gave a rough estimate of how much money she had.

Misato had to grab onto the stove as the shock nearly knocked her off her feet, her eyes almost popping out of her face. “Oh... kay,” she finally managed to say as she stood back up. “Well... I can see you've got your heart set on this. Let's buy it and get back home.”

As she looked over the stove, Misato struggled for a moment to think if there would be any problems fitting the thing into her kitchen, until she remembered that there was room to move the fridge if necessary.

Rei's smile grew larger as she thanked her, and Misato couldn't help but return it.

As they made their way to the counter to buy the stove, Misato almost bowled Rei over as the bluenette stopped suddenly in front of a cookware display. The look in Rei's eyes gave the woman pause.

“Really, Rei?” she sighed out in resignation.

* * *

Rei and Misato surprised everybody at the party on their return. Not due to how long they were gone, rather that they both apparently came back empty-handed. At the roomful of raised eyebrows and inquisitive looks, Misato explained that Rei's gift was too large to fit into the back of her car, and that it was getting delivered tomorrow morning. The contents of the table then caught the woman's eye. The presents were exactly where they were when Misato and Rei had left, unopened.

“Hey, weren't you going to open the other presents while we were gone?” she asked.

“Yeah, but then the Stooges got arguing over who should go first,” Asuka explained with a sigh. “It descended into us using your Super Famicom to fight it out. And...” she glared at one of the two boys, “Kensuke somehow won.”

The winner grinned smugly. Next to him, Toji crossed his arms sulkily. “I woulda won if you hadn't stolen my fireball guy, Red,” he said.

“Not my fault you were too slow,” Asuka retorted.

“And besides, Toji,” Kensuke butted in. “I keep telling you that you can't win just by throwing fireballs.”

“Kicked your ass before.”

“Once. Because my controller broke.”

“Okay that's enough, both of you!” Hikari ordered. The two boys immediately shut up as the girl used her authoritative voice to stop yet another argument. She continued, in a much nicer tone, “At least now Misato and Rei get to see Shinji open the gifts too.”

With that said, everybody gathered around the dining table once more, and the unwrapping finally began.

Shinji pulled at the tape holding Kensuke's small and square present closed. What came out was a box showing a fancy-looking digital watch. Half of the front of the box was taken up by what looked like twenty different features.

“My present's actually kind of a companion gift to Toji's,” Kensuke explained. “I'll wait until you've opened his before I tell you what that watch can do.”

Giving the technology junkie a warm smile, Shinji then looked towards Asuka, who had come a very close second in the impromptu tournament. She cautiously handed him an oblong parcel before snatching her hand back. He was confused to see what almost looked like worry in the redhead's eyes as he began to unwrap it.

The box looked almost as good as what it contained, if the impressed murmurs all around the room as Shinji carefully set it down on the table were anything to go by. But that was nothing compared to the look on his face as he opened the box and saw what was inside.

Asuka would remember that look for a very long time.

Shinji gingerly brought the bow out into view of the others at the table, holding it as if it were a fragile glass ornament.

“Damn, that looks neat,” said Toji. He leaned sideways and whispered to Kensuke, “So... what is it?” Kensuke buried his face in his hand in disbelief.

Asuka sighed exasperatedly. “It's for Shinji's cello, you dunce. That's what you use to play one.”

“Ooohh.” Toji frowned. “Wait, which one is the cello? Kidding!” he hastily added as Asuka looked ready to erupt.

Shinji hadn't been paying attention to the banter around him, still focused on the masterwork bow in front of him. A discreet note inside the box stated the materials used in the making of the bow. His eyebrows went up at what wood had been used. “Asuka...” he breathed.

“If you attempt to bring up anything about the price, there'll be trouble,” Asuka warned. “Price doesn't matter. I only have one stipulation for you.”

“A-a stipulation?”

“Yes.” The Second Child folded her arms. “I want you to start playing your cello again.”

“Oh! Um... of course!” Shinji stammered. “But... do you really want to hear my awful attempts?”

_'He has no confidence in his ability,'_ Asuka thought to herself, remembering the interrogation the music shop owner had given her. She had said as much to the man, who had dropped the smile from his face for a few seconds, before stating that he hoped the new bow would aid in boosting his confidence.

“I don't really care how bad you think it sounds,” she said out loud, knowing full well how good Shinji really was. “I just don't want to see my gift go to waste.”

“I won't. T-thank you Asuka.” Shinji's smile widened.

Forget the look before.  _This_ was the image Asuka would remember forever. A truly grateful Third Child smiling at her while holding her birthday present to him. To her slight disappointment, he tucked the bow away in its box and put it carefully aside. Part of her had been expecting Shinji to have a go on the cello right away.

“Y-you're welcome,” Asuka replied as red crept into her cheeks. She coughed to try and cover up her verbal stumble. “Well... who was next? Oh yes.”

“Yeah! My turn!” Sakura exclaimed. But then the girl's face fell. “Um... Rei?” She turned to the First Child. “Do you still have my present?”

“Excuse me?” Rei began, before remembering what Sakura had given her not that long ago. “Oh, of course! I left it in my room. Would you like to come with me to fetch it?”

As they left, Asuka glanced at Toji, who shrugged and said, “She's my _sister._ What kind of brother would I be if I didn't go easy on her?”

Asuka  smirked, but silently conceded the point as Rei and Sakura returned. The young girl was fidgeting with the wrapping paper as she entered the kitchen, but eventually she strode up to Shinji and held the present out to him.

Asuka winced slightly as Shinji unfolded the vivid purple and green sports shirt emblazoned with a white '01' on the back, knowing how little Shinji enjoyed reminders of his status as Third Child. To his credit, he managed to keep any negative reaction off his face and instead smiled down at the hopeful face of Sakura.

“It's lovely, thank you,” Shinji said, to which Asuka raised an eyebrow. It truly sounded like he meant it.

After stepping into the bedroom to change into the shirt, Shinji came out a few moments later, twisting his body around to ensure it was a good fit. “How does it look?” he inquired.

“A damn sight better than the school uniform you always wore,” Asuka replied. Admittedly, the Third Child had gratefully acknowledged the work she had put into giving him an expanded clothing selection, and the hated -by her at least- school uniform almost never showed its face these days. Still, something about the shirt he now wore seemed to suit him, despite the choice of colours.

As Shinji returned to the table in preparation for the next gift, Asuka's gaze swept over Toji, who cringed and rubbed the back of his head as the redhead grinned like a shark. “I still can't believe you, Stooge. I understand that you lost to your sister, but to  _Pen-Pen?!_ ”

“He had to be cheating!” Toji cried out. “There's no damn way I was beaten by a freakin' tuxedo-wearin' _dodo!_ ”

“ _WARK!”_

The sound of an incandescent avian froze the jock in his seat.

“Ohoho!” Misato crowed. Her face took on the sharklike expression that Asuka's had suddenly lost. “You messed up, kid. That was _not_ a nice word you used in front of Pen-Pen!” 

Toji's head swivelled mechanically around to the end of the table where Pen-Pen sat. The penguin was quivering in rage and the unopened can in one clawed flipper was starting to deform slightly in his grip.

And then he threw the can directly at the hapless teen's face.

Asuka had to physically restrain a screaming Pen-Pen while Hikari sighed and pulled Toji away to the lounge room, after stopping at the freezer to put some ice on his forehead. Kensuke had to stuff a fist in his mouth to stop from laughing out loud.

Pen-Pen thankfully calmed down as soon as the speciest boy was out of his sight. He huffed and gently shook off Asuka's grip before jumping down to the floor, heading over to his personal fridge. He opened it and stared inside for a moment, before coming back to the table and nudging  Asuka in the leg while pointing to the open freezer door.

With a look of confusion on her face, Asuka walked over to the penguin's 'room' and looked inside. “ _Mein Gott!_ ” she exclaimed upon seeing what the present was, and looked back at Pen-Pen. “You're giving him  _this?!_ It's huge!”

“Wark,” said Pen-Pen.

Misato helpfully translated. “He says he's been saving it for a special occasion, and that this seemed as good a one as any.”

“...You got all that from just one 'wark'?”

She shrugged. “Pen-Pen's lived with me for a long time. I learned his language.”

A disbelieving look crossed Asuka's face, but she chose not to question the logic. Instead, she reached inside and carefully pulled out the gift. “If it wasn't for the fact that I've seen you read the paper and play video games,” she muttered. “I'd be wondering just how the hell you got your hands on this.”

Rei cocked her head to one side as the large frozen fish came into view. It was almost the length of her arm. “That is Pacific Bluefin Tuna. Are those not critically endangered?”

“Wark,” Pen-Pen smugly replied, which Misato translated as, “I have my ways.”

Shinji goggled at the fish. “Wow, that's... quite big. I could do quite a lot with this.”

“Wark?”

It was easy for Shinji to decipher what the avian said. He looked at Pen-Pen and said, “Of course you'll get to have some. You're part of this family too. But... for now I think you should keep it in your freezer. I don't think there's room in ours.”

“Wark!” Pen-Pen clapped his flippers together. He was looking forward to seeing what the chef of the house could do.

At last it was Toji's turn, and he cautiously sat back down at the table as far away from Pen-Pen as possible. His present turned out to be a set of exercise clothes and several home workout videos. The reveal of the present allowed Kensuke to finally begin to enthusiastically explain Shinji's new watch.

It surprised nobody when  Kensuke went into excessive detail on the multiple exercise features, such as a pedometer, heart rate monitor, and other things that began to make Shinji's head spin. Asuka eventually had to stop  him as he got a little too excited.

Since Rei had already explained that her gift was coming the next day, the final gift was going to come from Misato, until she sadly said, “I'm sorry, Shinji. I had a specific gift in mind for you, but I've had no luck finding it yet.”

“There's no need to worry,” Shinji replied. “You've already given me a wonderful gift.”

“Bwuh?” Misato tilted her head in confusion. “When?”

The boy smiled gently. “When you offered to become my mother.”

A very undignified sound emanated from Hikari's mouth as Shinji got up and hugged a suddenly teary-eyed Misato.

* * *

When the presents and paper were cleared away, Asuka declared that it was time for a few games. First, it was an eating competition, with the catch being that the food -a doughnut- was dangling above their heads and they couldn't use their hands. Misato and Toji both lost, as in their haste to win, their doughnuts slipped out of the string and landed on the ground.

Next, she brought everybody into the lounge room, where a game of Twenty Questions was started. The game was unfortunately rather biased against Rei, as she knew far less about popular culture than everybody else, but she still had fun.

A few other party games were played, until it was time for dinner. Asuka almost forced Shinji to sit down again, as the boy was intending to cook something, while Misato ordered take-out for the first time in a long time.

After dinner, everybody was too full for more party games, so the Super Famicom was turned on again. This time, however, the teenagers decided to play non-competitive games. Misato and Sakura chose to simply relax on the couch with an arm around each other and watch ninja androids beat up evil gang members.

“Hey Misato, you should get some nunchaku for the Evas,” Kensuke suggested. “That'd be pretty badass.”

The commander of NERV snorted. “Sorry, kid. We're supposed to  _ kill _ the Revenants, not bonk them on the head.”

“Aw. Shame the Evas aren't true robots, I wanna see one do that helicopter thing with the blade arms.”

* * *

Eventually, it became time for the guests to head home.

“Hope you had a good, uh... late birthday, Shin-man,” Toji said at the door, a sleepy Sakura riding on his back. “Shame about the attack wasting all that time though.”

Shinji's smile turned brittle for a moment upon remembering the battle, but he still said, “You guys were here. That's all I need for a good day.”

Toji grinned and waved goodbye as he left.

When the door closed behind the jock, Misato sighed and turned to Shinji. “I suppose we should finally tell you what's been happening with the Revenants...”

What followed was a grim hour-long conversation as Asuka, Rei and Misato filled the boy in on the Revenants, as well as the reason why they were returning.

“So... this is all just some sort of test?” Shinji asked.

“Pretty much,” Misato replied. “But with no Lilith anymore, I'm unsure of what would happen if we... if _humanity_ lost.” At his uncertain expression, she added, “Hey, don't look so down. We've beaten three of them already. Oh, and since I know you're going to talk about us 'needing' you, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Asuka and Rei. _Nobody_ is going to force you into this, or bribe, blackmail, guilt trip you, _whatever_. If you pilot again, it will be because it was solely _your_ choice.”

“My choice...” Shinji murmured.

Misato put a hand on his shoulder. “You go have some time to think about it. If you decide to pilot again, I promise we'll do everything possible to get Unit-01 working again. Today wasn't exactly good for you anyway. Maybe another attempt when there's no pressure will improve matters.”

“Hey.” Asuka grabbed the boy's other shoulder. “Put off thinking about it for now. Just enjoy the last hours of your birthday party.” She glanced at Misato. “We're gonna play one more game, okay?”

“Sure.” Misato waved them off. “I'll clean up before I turn in. You've worked enough today, Asuka. Just don't stay up too late.”

“Cool, thanks.”

“I cannot join you,” Rei said. “Tomorrow is Monday, and I do not wish to be tired at school.” She bade the others goodnight and went to bed.

Asuka and Shinji went into the lounge room, and as Misato tidied up, she focused on their voices as they played.

“ _So what's the story in this game, anyway?”_

“ _Bad guys kidnapped the skinny guy's girlfriend. He's off to rescue her, and the big guy's his cop friend. Which one do you wanna be?”_

“ _Um, I'll take the thin one.”_

“ _Sweet, I get to be big and red!”_

Misato grinned. The game sounded familiar to her. She did have quite a few games from when she was a much younger girl, and she hadn't had the heart to get rid of the game console.

“ _Whoah, that's neat. How do I do that?”_

“ _Like this.”_

She was glad she didn't. Now somebody else was getting some well-deserved use out of it.

“ _Why were we beating people up on a bus?! ... And now we're at a stadium, fighting... a genie?”_

“ _It's a video game, dummy... Hey! Don't steal my stolen sword!”_

If the Revenant attack could be ignored, the day had brought a sense of normalcy to her, making it seem like they were just a regular family. It honestly didn't matter to Misato that the three teenagers in her home weren't actually related her. She loved them as much as if she had given birth to them. Blood wasn't the only thing that made a family, after all.

Misato went straight to bed after cleaning up, pausing briefly to wish her kids goodnight, and fell asleep with-

“ _Hell yeah, Angry Mode! Eat a super powerbomb, **Arschloch!”**_

And fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	23. Chapter 23

Shinji seemed to improve considerably in the days after the party. As he told Misato, it didn't matter that the party was late; the simple fact that his friends had organised one was why he couldn't keep a smile off his face for nearly a week. When he found out that Asuka had been the one to plan it all, Shinji's face had been red for a long time.

He did ask if their friends knew that it had been his first birthday party in a decade, to which both Asuka and Misato responded that they hadn't told the guests anything except that Shinji had missed his birthday due to his condition. That they weren't attending out of pity only made him happier.

His improved mood encouraged Asuka to try something ; she slowly but surely shifted her futon closer to Shinji's each night without the boy noticing. No matter what he said, she could easily tell when the nightmares had been hitting him, and her concern for him had finally managed to override her fear. Eventually their beds were almost at the same point they had been during his catatonia.

And then they woke up the next morning holding each other's hand.

It was the single most embarrassing moment of Asuka's life. They both hurriedly let go, and Shinji cut off her attempt at an explanation with an apology. In her embarrassment, Asuka simply let it happen, too worried over what he would think if he found out she had been the instigator.

But she didn't fail to spot the infinitesimally small smile on Shinji's face as he prepared breakfast, and she was thankful that the boy either didn't notice their slowly and subtly altered sleeping arrangements, or simply didn't want to call attention to them in case she changed her mind.

Which wouldn't happen even under torture, as far as Asuka was concerned. Waking up holding his hand once more had sent shivers down her spine at their closeness. All that was missing was a good morning ki-

No.

It was too soon for that. She still couldn't be sure that Shinji felt the same way. After all, she had hurled a lot of abuse and threats at the poor boy the previous year. What if he still harboured some resentment? She would have to summon up the courage and ask him one day.

At least he no longer seemed to fear her. That was something Asuka simply couldn't stand the thought of now. Her efforts to not be a 'demon', as the Stooges called her, had obviously paid off. Back when he had first recovered, she would occasionally see the tiniest of flinches in his body whenever she came into his sight. Now her mere presence seemed to always summon a smile or a hopeful look to Shinji's face.

Asuka wanted to go back in time and punch the Second Child for her earlier self's attitude towards the boy. That dumb girl didn't know what she had nearly utterly destroyed.

* * *

The next Sunday, not long after Misato had dropped the Children off at the apartment before heading back to NERV, there came a knock on the door. Asuka was busy making a sandwich, so when Shinji opened it he was greeted by Toji, who was wearing exercise clothes and a boisterous grin.

“Hey Shin-man!” he said, a little too loudly. “Got some free time to go for a jog?”

Asuka almost lost her concentration, risking a cut from the knife, as she heard the request. Shinji still hadn't mentioned his fear of other people to the stooges. For the time being, that fear would remain hidden as he begged off, claiming that Asuka had made him work hard in the pool earlier.

“Fair enough, we'll go another time then. Later!” With that, the athlete headed off, and Shinji walked back into the kitchen, to be confronted by an inquisitive German girl.

“Today's exercise wasn't _that_ bad,” Asuka said, before sighing and gently adding, “It's because you'd be out in public, right?”

The lack of any response from the boy was enough of an answer.

Toji would try again twice more the following week. Both times, Shinji would claim he was too tired. After his second attempt,  Toji angrily shouted into the house, “Hey, Red! Quit tirin' Shin-man out!” before leaving.

Asuka growled under her breath, but knew that her hands were tied. It was up to Shinji to tell the jock about his fear. If she did it for him, it would damage their relationship by betraying his trust. That was something she couldn't bring herself to do, especially after what had happened during that past week.

“I think you should tell him,” Asuka said after the third attempt by Toji. She sat down at the table opposite the boy. “He deserves to know, and despite being a dumb jock, he's your friend. It's not like he's going to force you into it if he knows why.”

“But why don't we just keep swimming?” asked Shinji.

Asuka sighed. “Look, swimming's fine, but you should get out in the open air occasionally too. Besides, don't you want to spend some time with your friends too?”

It hurt a little to say that, but as much as Asuka actually enjoyed Shinji's presence, the other two Stooges were starting to loudly toss around ideas about _why_ she was with him so much. If she could get him back outside, he could start spending time with his friends, and they could settle down on the 'Red Demon ensnaring poor Shinji' theories, or whatever they were thinking these days.

Helping Shinji with his fear of swimming had been easy, not to mention fun. But Asuka had no idea how to fix what was essentially anthropophobia.

“You're not going to let this go, are you?” Shinji bitterly replied.

“The longer you put it off, the harder it'll be,” Asuka replied. “You can't stay inside forever.”

The boy rubbed his forehead. The scar from his head wound had almost completely faded, but Asuka knew where to look to see the jagged mark, especially since Shinji always rubbed that part of his forehead, as if he was wondering if it was still there. “Why not?” he shot back. “It's not like I need anything.”

“Except food, clothes, _friends_.” Asuka's counter was just as quick. “You know, the essentials of living. Or are you just expecting us to do everything for you?”

Guilt crawled in the redhead's gut as Shinji's face fell. She had not intended to say something so accusative, and she felt like she had ruined some of the progress the two of them had made in her efforts to help him. Asuka lowered her voice and said, “Shinji, what is it you're really afraid of? Seeing people, or this... memory thing?”

_'Do you have my memories too?'_ she didn't ask, but sorely wanted to.

“Well... you said that nobody really knows what happened in Instrumentality,” Shinji slowly replied, head bowed. “And that the blame is officially on SEELE and... my father.”

The Second Child smiled. “Good, you remembered. Right on both accounts.”

“But I still feel like people would just _know_ what I did, just by looking at me.”

“ _I_ know what you did,” Asuka replied. “Misato, Rei, Akagi, they know what you did too.” She leaned forward into Shinji's line of sight. “You made the choice to let us return. _That_ is what you did.”

“After-” the boy began.

Asuka's interruption was swift as she waved a finger in front of his face. “No. Do not go there. Focus on the positive. Everybody's back, except the assholes who are truly at fault. Hell, for all we know they might be hating their so-called perfect world now. Fix that in your mind instead.”

It was slow going, but Shinji's face eventually lost its look of despondency. “Heh. That would be a nice punishment. After all, I know how empty absolute perfection really is.” At Asuka's curious tilt of the head, he waved a hand in dismissal and said, “I'll tell you about it some other time.”

“O... kay?”

“To answer your question... I suppose it really is the memories of strangers hitting me while I'm outside.”

“Yeah, I thought as much,” Asuka replied with a sigh. “In that case you'll need something to keep your focus away from people.”

Shinji chuckled. “Another distraction?”

“Damn right! But... what?” Asuka dropped her chin into an upraised hand. “Can't wander around and cook at the same time, and you're not exactly a thrilling conversationalist.”

Shinji stood up and stretched his back. “Do we really have to think of something right now? Besides, there's something I'd like to do now anyway. I haven't actually gotten around to honouring your request after all.”

“My... Oh!”

Asuka grinned -and cheered internally- as Shinji fetched the cello case and his brand new bow, while she brought a dining chair into the lounge room. Despite his abrupt and possibly deliberate subject change, she wasn't going to give up just yet, and she wanted to stretch out on the couch while thinking about what would work to keep Shinji's attention off of other people.

In only a few minutes, music began to fill the apartment. Shinji had put a music disc into the stereo, but everything was silent until there came a soft tapping through the speakers. On the fourth tap, Shinji began. He started slow and alone on the cello for a minute before violins softly began playing, and then the song sped up as an entire orchestra joined in before it all went quiet once more.

Asuka listened intently, enraptured by the boy as she stared at his face, and all thoughts of distraction were gone from her mind. She had been expecting him to simply be playing a part of the orchestra, but this song seemed to centre entirely around the cello in his hands.

But after about ten minutes, a part of her mind began jumping up and down, urging the girl to figure out what was odd about what was happening in front of her. She sat up on the couch and looked closer at the scene.

Shinji's left hand was flying up and down the neck of the cello as the song sped up, eyes closed as his right hand seemed to be almost vibrating in place. The stereo speakers, while not exactly top quality, were nevertheless performing well as his accompaniment.

Wait. Eyes closed.

Asuka looked again. The boy's eyes were indeed closed, his face a mask of concentration as he focused entirely on the song. There was no stand in front of him, and she couldn't remember seeing him even glancing at a music sheet before beginning. He was playing the song entirely from memory, without a single foul-up, and the song had been going for at least fifteen minutes by this point. A glance at the time on the stereo showed that the piece was just over half an hour long.

Rei had stepped into the lounge room, having apparently just arrived home from school without Asuka noticing, and her focus was entirely on her brother. Asuka followed her example and remained still and silent until the song came to an end. Shinji opened his eyes and blinked rapidly, as if he was just waking up. “So... did I do alright, Asuka?” he hesitantly inquired as he got up and stopped the stereo before the next song could begin.

“You performed admirably,” Rei answered in Asuka's stead, seeing as the redhead was still in awe. Shinji jumped a little upon hearing his sister's voice, but settled down and smiled at her.

“Y-yeah, what she said,” Asuka finally managed to say. She cleared her head with a swift shake and asked, “What was that song?”

“Elgar's Cello Concerto,” Shinji replied, before rubbing the back of his head. The name was unfamiliar to Asuka, as she really only knew German composers. “I suppose I could have stopped after the first movement like I usually do, but I guess I got a little too... swept up in it.”

“And you played the entire thing from memory.”

“Yeah.” Shinji looked away, embarrassed. “But I don't think I did very well.”

“Please do not put yourself down like that, Shinji,” Rei interjected. “I may not be very knowledgeable about music, but what you just played sounded wonderful. That you have memorised the entire song is in itself a remarkable achievement.” He didn't look back at her, but his red face did sprout a smile.

“So why has it taken you so long to use my gift?” Asuka asked.

Shinji looked down at the bow in his hand. “Um... this thing is practically a work of art, and I was kind of afraid I'd damage it. But... after using it, it feels like it was  _made_ for me. It would be a waste to not use it.” He raised his head and beamed at  her , who gave thanks to the old man at the music shop for nailing the gift perfectly. “Thank you again, Asuka. I'm going to start playing more often now.”

With her cheeks heating up at the gratitude, Asuka nodded and said, “Good. Are you going to play any more today?”

“I need to rest for a few minutes first, but I'll do a few more shorter songs.” Shinji turned to Rei. “Would you like to listen too?”

“I am afraid I cannot stay long,” Rei replied apologetically. “I have promised Kensuke that I would aid him with some of his homework.” With a glance at the clock, she added, “In fact, I must leave now. I shall be back in a couple of hours.”

Rei left the apartment, and Asuka watched her leave. When the door closed, she said, “Huh. I guess Hikari was right.” To alleviate Shinji's confusion, she explained, “She said that Rei and Kensuke had been spending more time with each other since the party.”

Shinji raised an eyebrow at the news, but didn't say anything. He instead set the cello to one side and stood up, stretching out his limbs after sitting still for half an hour. Afterwards, he checked the insert on the list inside the music disc's case, and skipped several tracks on the stereo before setting himself up with his cello once more. At a nod from him, Asuka pressed the play button and sat back down on the couch.

The first song sounded vaguely familiar to the redhead, and she had to rack her brain to remember the German composer's name. The second, Pachelbel's _Canon in D_ , she could identify in her sleep, and Shinji would be able to _play_ it in his sleep. What surprised her was that Shinji was being accompanied through the stereo by a single violin, and it caused an idea to begin to stir in the recesses of Asuka's mind.

But it was the third song, _Passacaglia,_ another violin and cello piece, that brought the idea to the front of her mind. The two instruments seemed to almost be _competing_ with each other, like classical duelling banjos. It seemed so much like how she felt before her eventual decline during the Angel War. Her and Shinji, going against each other in their, or rather just _her,_ struggle to be the best Evangelion pilot. As the song ended, Asuka clapped for the performance and could only think of one thing.

She _needed_ her violin.

* * *

Surprisingly, it was Rei who came up with a possible idea to keep Shinji's mind off of other people while outside a few days later, while the two girls were getting changed after another round of sync tests and combat simulations.

“Have you noticed how Shinji concentrates while listening to the music?” Rei quietly asked after opening her locker.

Asuka mentally replayed the previous evening in her head. Both Misato and Rei had been home as well, and she had convinced Shinji to play for them. She had been focused on Shinji's face, as she was still amazed that he could play so accurately from memory. The thin sheen of sweat on his face as he played the last song before finishing showed just how much effort he put into making music. “Yeah, it's like... he shuts the world out...” Her eyes lit up.

“Precisely.”

“Wondergirl, you're a genius.”

Rei blinked , tilting her head to the side in puzzlement . “I am?”

Asuka explained how she had part of a solution for helping Shinji to be comfortable outside, and that Rei's comment had given her exactly what she needed to complete it.

“I see,” Rei replied after a moment. “Then perhaps this may help.” She took a familiar object out of her locker and passed it to the redhead.

“This... is his SDAT player.” Asuka would have preferred to never see this infernal device as long as she lived. Shinji had used it to shut out the world when things became too much for him. She looked up and asked, “Where'd you get it?”

“It was still in... my room,” Rei replied. “I brought it to my locker to... hide it.”

“Hide it?” Asuka repeated as she raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you give it back to him?”

“I...” The pale girl looked away, seemingly ashamed. “I know why Shinji used it so often. I was... afraid he would return to that habit.”

Asuka hummed in total understanding. She opened the SDAT player and took the tape out, muttering under her breath when she saw that it was unlabelled. The batteries were long dead, but fortunately not leaking yet. She was thankful that she always kept a few spares in her locker for her games and the long periods of waiting she had had to endure in the past. Slotting the fresh batteries in, she held the headphones near her ear and began to listen to the tracks, skipping through them to see what the Third Child's musical tastes were.

His playlist consisted mostly of pop songs, with a couple of classical music tracks near the end. The final two tracks made Asuka wonder if Misato had ever been a singer, as the vocalist sounded almost exactly like her.

A tap on her shoulder almost made her drop the SDAT in surprise, and Asuka looked up into  Rei's concerned face . She shook her head at the unasked question, and glared down at the player. It was almost as if it was attempting to suck her in. No wonder Shinji returned to it so often.

_'Maybe now its powers can be harnessed for good,'_ she mused. Out loud, she said, “The songs are pretty good, but the tape is starting to degrade.”

“Kensuke may be able to assist,” offered Rei. “He has helped some of our classmates to acquire music. Perhaps he can make a new tape.”

“Well, since I'm sure you're going to be seeing him again soon, I'll let you handle that,” Asuka replied, passing her the tape. She briefly considered asking Rei about what was happening between her and Kensuke, but held her tongue. The confused redhead had to sort out her own relationship before she could pry into somebody else's. If Rei came to her with any questions, she would just have to direct her to Misato instead.

At least it might be entertaining to eavesdrop on.

Asuka stuffed the SDAT player into her pocket, hoping the bulge would go unnoticed. After both the pool time and the tests and simulations, it was now well after lunchtime. The two pilots met up with Shinji and Misato, and together they headed for the cafeteria for a bite to eat before heading home. While the boy got his own lunch, Asuka quietly asked Misato a question, to which the woman responded that she would look into it and let her know that evening.

* * *

It had been less of an effort than Asuka had expected to teach Shinji the Western alphabet, and she had quickly had him singing the alphabet song in German. She couldn't work out what had compelled her to do such a thing, but it was worth it when she caught the Third Child idly humming it to himself while preparing lunch one day.

His rapid progress in learning her mother tongue had given Asuka an idea earlier that day. After Misato dropped them off and headed back to NERV, and Rei split off to speak to Kensuke, she posed a challenge to Shinji: Instead of Japanese, speak only German for the rest of the day. Everybody else in the Katsuragi household could speak the language, Rei only slightly less so than Misato and Asuka, so there would be little trouble as all three could correct him.

Asuka had no idea if Pen-Pen could understand German though. But since the bird drank, read the newspaper, watched television and could somehow smuggle a critically endangered fish into the apartment, she wouldn't put anything past him.

“Shall we begin?”

“Yes- I mean, _ja.”_

Asuka nodded in approval. _“_ _Gut. Also, was kochst du heute zum Abendessen?”_ <Good. Okay, what are you making for dinner tonight?>

“Ah... _Reis, Suppe, und ich werde dem Rest von die Thunfisch benutzen, die PenPen mich gegeben hat. Oh, und eine alternative Gericht fur Rei.”_ <Rice, soup, and I'm going to use the last of the tuna Pen-Pen gave me. Oh, and an alternate dish for Rei.>

“Okay, that wasn't so bad,” Asuka replied with an appraising look. “Just... Shinji, _Rest_ and _Thunfisch_ are male words, and it should be a genitive with the tuna; also, it's _'ein alternatives Gericht'_ and _'für'_.”

“Sorr- I mean... _Entschuldige_?”

The redhead rolled her eyes, trying to ignore what hearing the boy apologise in German did to her. “Don't be sorry, dummy. You're doing a hell of a lot better than I expected. In a couple months you'd probably be able to watch a German documentary and understand the entire thing.”

The praise brought a smile to Shinji's face, which in turn made Asuka's lips turn upwards.

* * *

Asuka's stepmother, a woman who had apparently fallen for her bastard of a father just as badly as her own mother, had given her a wonderful gift for her college graduation, despite Asuka being emancipated.

It was an antique Jakob Stainer violin, that Katharina Langley's grandmother had bequeathed to her in the old woman's will. But with her nursing career, she could never find time to learn to play it and so had quietly passed it on to Asuka when her husband wasn't looking. Asuka had been determined to _make_ time to learn to play the instrument. At first, it was simply because she wanted to add another skill to her repertoire. Another thing to brag about; another notch on her belt.

She was glad the time had been made now. All she needed to do was get the violin from the storage unit it had been stored at when she had arrived in Japan with far too much to fit in her room. It was just a shame that the storage unit had been badly damaged by the N2 mine dropped on Tokyo-3.

“You're kidding me!” Asuka angrily exclaimed when Misato told her the bad news that evening.

“Afraid so.”

“Everything okay?” Shinji asked as he turned away from the stove. “Er... I mean... Alles in Ordnung?”

“ _Ach... egal,”_ Asuka hastily replied. _“Ich hatte nur gehofft, etwas aus der Lagereinheit zu holen, in der letztes Jahr der ganze Rest von meinem Kram eingelagert wurde.”_ <Oh... never mind, I was just hoping to get... something from the storage unit the rest of my stuff got put in last year.>

Misato raised an eyebrow at the redhead, curious as to why both teens were speaking in German, but decided to play along. _“_ _Ich hab nur gesagt, dass das Gebäude beschädigt wurde, nicht zerstört. Deine Sachen könnten überlebt haben.”_ <I just said the building was damaged, not destroyed. Your stuff might have survived.>

“Um... _Ich_... Ah...” Shinji struggled to keep up.

Asuka took pity on the poor boy, as Misato had been talking far faster than he could follow. She returned to Japanese and translated for him. “Misato said that the building wasn't outright destroyed, and that I might still get my things back.”

“Right. _Also..._ ” Shinji began.

“I'll let you stop now, anyway” Asuka said, “You did pretty well, I suppose.”

Shinji nodded and turned back to the stove. Rei's extraordinary gift had amazed everybody, and even caused some jealousy to stir inside Asuka at the fact that the First Child had basically one-upped her. Some of the old cookware had been passed along to a grateful Hikari, and the new ones were now cleaned almost immediately after dinner, as was the stove. Asuka took a deep whiff of the almost-ready dinner. His gifts seemed to have inspired him, as his meals were only getting better as time went on.

Since she wanted to surprise Shinji, she began speaking to Misato in rapid-fire German about precisely what she was hoping was still intact.  Misato predictably teased her about 'making beautiful music' with Shinji, to which all she could do was blush. It was difficult enough to deny anything to herself, let alone somebody like Misato.

It was impossible to hide from her emotions lately, especially when they were as strong as they had become in the past few weeks. Asuka had tried in the past to change how she felt about Shinji, but it simply didn't work. She had only two choices: keep trying and not get anywhere, or give in and accept these feelings.

She couldn't even bring herself to try and change him anymore. Teaching him to swim and speak German didn't count, as they were both useful skills to know. And her attempt to get him to go outside again was just her trying to heal him, to return him to what he used to be. The quiet, polite, not-very-social-but-still-tries teenager she knew for most of last year.

Most other people wouldn't give up on changing him. They would try to 'fix' him, to mould him into their perfect mate... their _doll._ They would try to get him to 'man up'. But to Asuka, those changes would strip away the very things that made him Shinji Ikari. So what if he couldn't beat somebody up? He could still out-cook practically anybody, in her opinion.

Brave? No, Shinji wasn't brave. But he was  _courageous_ . He feared and hated the Evangelions, but he  still  had the courage to climb into the machine that had stolen his mother, and put himself in danger to save humanity countless times.

To Asuka's faint surprise, she felt like he was perfect just the way he was, meekness and all. All those little flaws that used to irritate her to no end... they made him who he was. A cocky and arrogant Third Child just would not be the same. He would be like... well, like herself. And look how she had turned out.

And then there was his ability to make her relax with just a few notes on his cello. No matter how many times Shinji would say that he wasn't very good, Asuka would always insist that he was brilliant. Because he was.

Was this what it really felt like to be in love? _Was_ it love? She didn't exactly have much to compare it to. It certainly felt different to whatever she had felt for Ryoji Kaji.

But fear was still lurking in her chest, ready to remind her what had happened the last time she had opened her heart to somebody. Knowing the truth behind her mother's death didn't seem to help. The sting of that betrayal still lingered. It was now like an animal that had learned not to touch an electric fence, instinctively keeping away from it in case it got shocked again.

What would it take to be able to force herself to say something?

“Asuka? You okay?”

The Second Child jumped a little at the woman's voice. “Huh? Yeah, just thinking.” She didn't need to turn around to feel the concerned stare of Shinji on her, and was almost unhappy when that sensation disappeared a moment later as he put the finishing touches on dinner.

“Considering the look on your face just then, I won't ask what about,” replied Misato. “Anyway, I'll do my best to find out if... that item survived.”

“Thanks, Misato.”

* * *

To Asuka's great relief, she had the violin case in her hands two days later. Most of the rest of her stored items had been damaged or destroyed, but the majority was clothing and fashion accessories, as well as the small amount of sheet music she had used to practice. With her pilot's wage, those were easily replaceable.

A crack in the case showed where something heavy had fallen on it, and as Asuka gingerly opened the case, her heart sank at the accompanying damage to the instrument itself. The fact that the bow survived intact was little consolation.

The loud German curse she uttered was soon followed by the sound of footsteps hurrying up the hallway, and she hastily shoved the violin back in its case and under her bed, pulling down the sheet a little to cover it up.

“Asuka?” It was Shinji, worried as usual, cautiously poking his head through the door as if her bedroom were a dragon's cave. “Everything okay in here?”

“It's nothing, I'm fine!” the girl loudly replied, much too quick to be believable. It brought to mind the times last year when she'd told him to go away. He always would.

“Oh... okay...”

And now he was making _that_ face again, the one that made him look like a dog with its tail between its legs, as he slowly retreated.

Asuka sighed heavily. “Get back here, you idiot.”

It was a long five seconds between the footsteps outside her room stopping, and turning around to come back at a snail's pace. This time, Shinji only put part of his face in view. He was probably expecting it to get burnt off. She had to wave him in several times before he got the message.

He stopped several feet away from her and said only one thing. “Um...”

Asuka rolled her eyes and yanked Shinji down to the floor by an arm. She grudgingly brought out the violin case and showed him her problem. Whatever had fallen on the case had had enough force to crack the neck of the instrument.

“Ooh, that looks bad,” Shinji said with a sharp intake of breath. “But... you could still get it repaired, right?”

“I'd have to find somewhere in this city that does antique repairs and restorations,” Asuka dully replied. “This thing is _old._ ”

The boy next to her gently placed the violin back in its case and closed the lid, then held up the bow. “You could ask at the place where you got my bow. Surely a music shop owner would have some idea.”

Asuka almost dismissed his suggestion, but then she remembered the old man who had sold her the perfect bow. Masami was certainly not just some retail goon grudgingly doing his job. He was a person who had found his niche and did everything he could to ensure everybody who shopped at his store left more than satisfied.

She would have gladly paid full price for the cello bow.

For the second time that week, Asuka said, “You're a genius!”

And also for the second time, the response she received was, “I am?”

Asuka sighed. Despite the physical differences, it was obvious that the First and Third Children were related. “Damn right you are. Let's go while the shops are still open.”

Shinji was almost dragged out of the apartment, Asuka letting go only when she realised that the violin had been left behind. She pressed the button for the elevator and waited.

When the door opened, they were greeted by Kensuke, who stepped out and waved. “Oh, hey guys.”

“What's up, nerd?” Asuka almost growled.

“Uh...” Kensuke froze. A look of confusion crossed his face. “Aren't you supposed to be at NERV?”

“No, that was a couple days ago.”

The spectacled boy scratched his head. “That's funny. The public address system called Rei away. Said it was NERV business. I assumed it was a sync test.”

The puzzled look migrated to Asuka's face. “We get told ahead of time when the tests are scheduled. And why use the P.A.? Eva pilots have cellphones for a reason.”

“Maybe her phone stopped working?” suggested Shinji. He took out his own phone and dialled Rei's number. The other two teenagers waited as he held the phone to his ear for almost half a minute, before he looked at it in disbelief. “No answer.”

“Something's wrong, then,” Asuka replied. “She wouldn't just choose not to answer it, not with everything that's happened this year and the last. I'm calling Misato.”

The call was answered almost immediately, and she pressed the button for the speaker. _“Shit. Asuka? Are you and Shinji okay?”_

“Of course we are.”

“ _And your friends? Nothing's happened to them?”_

“Aida, are Toji, Hikari and their sisters okay?” At a nod from Kensuke, she answered Misato. “They're fine too. What's going on? Rei's not answering her phone, and Nerd Stooge said she got called to NERV.”

“ _Her Section Two detail was just found dead, and we can't even locate her with the MAGI.”_ The response drew gasps of shock from all three teenagers, but the the next words chilled them to the bone.

“ _We believe she's been abducted.”_

* * *

Asuka couldn't decide what was worse. The news of Rei's disappearance... or the look on Shinji's face.

His expression had changed swiftly in the past couple of minutes. From confusion at not being able to reach his sister, to fear and worry at the fact that NERV seemed to be in an uproar over her disappearance, but now? She involuntarily shivered a little.

Now Shinji was angry. His eyes held none of the warmth they had just a short time ago.

“Misato.” The icy tone of Shinji's voice sounded eerily like his father. “Do you know who is responsible?”

His adoptive mother sounded taken aback, but recovered quickly. _“It can only be remnants of SEELE. I don't know what they have planned for Rei, but they won't leave this city. Ritsuko's really pushing the MAGI to the limit to hunt for any sign of her abductors.”_

Asuka's left hand lashed out and grabbed Shinji's arm as the boy moved towards the elevator. “Shinji, what are you doing?”

“I need to find Rei,” he coldly replied.

“Find... _How?!_ Tokyo-3 is massive!” Asuka waved her other hand, still holding her phone, in the direction of the city. “Rei could be anywhere, and you're just going to go out and _look_?”

Shinji swiftly turned to face Asuka, breaking the hold on his arm at the same time. “I can't just sit around and do nothing!” he yelled. “Not again!”

Turning back to the elevator, the boy stalked through the doorway just as it was about to close. Asuka barely recovered from her shock in time to put her body in the way of the doors, forcing the sensor to keep them open. She stood and stared at the boy for a moment, before Kensuke gently nudged her forward into the elevator and stepped in after her.

One look at Shinji's right hand told the redhead everything. He was getting stressed again, with good reason. It was fortunate that he had taken the doctor's advice and clipped his nails, otherwise his hand would likely be gushing blood onto the elevator floor. Still, the white knuckles told her that there would be vivid marks in the palm of his hand for a while afterwards.

What she really wanted to do right now was to hold that hand; to try and get him to release at least some of the tension building up inside him.

But the nerd was watching.

“Shinji,” she quietly said, trying to talk him down instead. “This isn't a lost pet. Somebody's _taken_ Wondergirl. They're not going to just wander the streets.”

“Yeah. I don't want to put you down, Shin-man,” Kensuke added. “But NERV's obviously got _everything_ they have out hunting for her. What can you do that they can't?”

Asuka sighed. She understood that their friends knew nothing of the boy's downward spiral before Third Impact, but that didn't stop her from thinking of the  nerd boy as a bit of a twit.

Shinji had, in his mind, failed Asuka by not forcing Unit-01 to break out of the Bakelite it had been trapped in. For so long, he had wholeheartedly believed that her death at the hands of the Mass Production Evangelions was entirely a result of his inaction. Now somebody else was in trouble, and Shinji didn't want to be sitting around doing nothing again.

She leaned closer to the Third Child and whispered in his ear, “Besides, aren't you forgetting something? You'd be going out in _public_.”

The elevator began to slow as it reached the ground floor, and Shinji scrunched his eyes up. “I... I know. But I have to.”

“And what are you going to do when the headache hits you again? It's going to be worse than last time with everybody you'll see.”

“That-that doesn't matter.” His eyes opened, and Asuka was at least relieved a little to see that they were no longer emotionless. “I don't want to be useless when somebody I love is in danger.”

Before Asuka could react to Shinji using  _ that _ word, the elevator doors opened.

And a bullet whizzed over her head, burying itself in the wall behind her.

“ _Scheiße!”_

The three teens scrambled for what little cover there was on the inside of the elevator, Asuka having to drag a transfixed Shinji to her side and press a hand to his chest to keep him against the side wall as she pounded the close button. The doors slid ponderously shut, a second bullet punching into the steel, but in seconds the sound of gunfire in the lobby was mercifully muted.

“Holy crap,” Kensuke remarked breathlessly from where he was crouched on the other side of the elevator. “Those were sub-machine guns. Can Section Two hold them off?”

As if in response to the military enthusiast's question, a heavier weapon began to fire, drowning out the sound of the lighter calibre weapons. Asuka grinned slightly, sliding down the wall and dragging Shinji with her, in case of any more errant rounds.

“This is a NERV building, Stooge,” she replied. “A NERV building where its  _ Commander  _ lives. Its security has more than just tasers and harsh language to protect it.”

  
“Man, why didn't I know any of this?” Kensuke moaned. “I live here too!”

“Simple. I warned them about you.”

“Aw, come-” The muffled crump of an explosion cut off whatever the teen was going to say. His eyes widened. It was hard to tell whether it was from shock or glee. “Explosives too?!”

“Commander,” Asuka reiterated with a sigh.

They waited in anxious silence for several minutes. Just as the redhead was beginning to wonder why she hadn't pressed a floor button to get away from the fighting, she heard a voice coming from her hand.

“ _Asuka? Are you alright?”_ The line was still open.

“People are  _ shooting _ at each other here, Misato!” she exclaimed. “What the hell is going on?!”

“ _Just wait in the elevator for now.”_

Asuka raised an eyebrow. How did she know where they were? A glance up at the ceiling answered her question, and she sighed and waved at the security camera. Maybe it was a good thing she didn't hold Shinji's hand.

“ _Yes, hello to you too. The fighting is almost over now, so please wait where you are. I'll see you soon.”_ The line closed, and Asuka snapped the phone shut before sliding it back into her pocket.

A few more minutes passed before the elevator door opened; struggling a little as the deformed metal tried to fit into place. A black-suited man waited on the other side, a rifle held at the low-ready position in one hand as he glanced between the elevator and the shattered lobby door. “Are you kids alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, we-” Kensuke began before Asuka interrupted.

“What's today's passcode?” the redhead barked. The detail assigned to guard her fellow pilot was dead, and Rei had likely not even noticed that she had been picked up by phony Section Two agents until it was too late.

“Amelkin,” the man replied instantly.

Asuka didn't actually know herself what the password was, but the fact that the man had identified with absolutely no hesitation was proof enough for her. She nodded in approval. “They're gone?” she asked, quieter but still authoritative.

The Section Two agent was much larger and bulkier than all three teens, yet still addressed her respectfully. “Yes ma'am. All hostiles eliminated. Please follow me. My orders are to deliver you to NERV until this matter is settled.”

“Fine, but we're bringing the stooge here too,” Asuka replied, indicating Kensuke who was looking past the man in front of them to the scene at the lobby entrance. “And the next words out of your mouth had better be along the lines of 'Our orders extend to your friends', or I'm going to be unhappy.”

The agent confirmed that Commander Katsuragi had ordered  _ all _ the  people that lived in her building to be picked up and brought to NERV for safety.

“Good.”

“Hold up a moment,” Kensuke said, before running towards another man sitting against a nearby wall, attempting to wrap a bandage around his arm. The boy brushed the agent's fumbling hand away and had the bandage tied within moments. After making sure there were no other injuries, he walked back to the nonplussed group at the elevator. “Wilderness survival,” he quietly explained. “Gotta learn how to fix yourself up out there.”

As they left the lobby by a side exit, Asuka carefully diverted Shinji's gaze away from the nearby... mess by simply using a hand to turn his head. Kensuke seemed to be turning green, and even the Section Two agent didn't exactly look pleased as he glanced at what remained of a white van and what seemed to be a dozen bodies.

There were too many black suits on the ground.

* * *

It was not long before Toji, Hikari, and their siblings were ushered down to the ground floor and into their own vehicles, and a convoy of black cars swiftly left the apartment complex and headed for the Geofront. The trip was thankfully uneventful after the chaos of the last half-hour, but the mood was subdued.

Whatever fire that had previously flared up inside Shinji at the news of his sister's disappearance had petered out. Now the boy seemed almost immobilised by shock, to the point that Asuka had to nearly drag him all the way from the car to the command centre. It took Misato breaking away from pensively staring at the giant holographic screen and walking over to hug him and Asuka for Shinji to snap out of it. Both the Commander and Sub-Commander did their best to reassure the two teens, but one fact still remained.

There was still no sign of  Rei's whereabouts.

Their friends reacted predictably to the news when Asuka and Shinji met them in the cafeteria. Toji was possibly nearly as angry as Shinji had been, but Hikari was there to comfort him when he sagged into his chair in defeat. Her effort was enough to help the jock to put the news aside and try to cheer up a sniffling Sakura.

Food soon arrived at their table, and spirits seemed to be lifted by the early dinner. While in Asuka's opinion the cafeteria couldn't put out meals like the Third Child could, according to their friends it was still far superior to that served by the high school. She remarked that it would be a very bad thing to poison military personnel, accidental or not.

Asuka tried very hard not to think about how Hikari had mentioned a while ago that the school cafeteria food had somehow gotten _worse_. Some things should simply not be possible.

After a few minutes, the redhead looked to her left and noticed Shinji half-heartedly picking at the food on his plate. She knew the look on his face well; he was going to apologise about something soon. But she held her tongue, choosing not to jump on him for an apology he hadn't made yet, and what she saw next came as a bit of a surprise.

Shinji scrunched his face up, the glum look replaced by an expression that looked like he was undergoing an internal battle as he tried to make his mind up about something. His head jerked slightly back and forth a few times, possibly as he weighed up the two sides of whatever mental argument he was having.

Asuka finally spoke up when the boy sighed and let his head droop downward.

“Well done,” she whispered. “You were thinking about apologising, weren't you?”

Shinji's head shot up at the interruption to his musing as he finally seemed to register her presence. “Y-yeah,” he stammered. “I was, but then the logical part of my brain decided to step in and give me a kick in the rear.”

“It's about time that part woke up,” Asuka replied with a grin, which faded as she continued. “There's no way you could have known the building was going to get attacked.”

With a reluctant nod, Shinji said, “I know, but... if I hadn't acted like an... an _idiot,_ we wouldn't have been in danger in the first place.” His right hand clenched once more

Asuka reached out to his fist and gently pried it open. With their friends nearby, she couldn't make the gesture as reassuring as she wanted it to be, settling for simply checking for any damage. As she expected, there were marks in his palm from his nails, but no puncture wounds this time. Out of the corner of her eye, Asuka noticed Kensuke looking at them. A threatening look got a zipped lips gesture from the spectacled boy, and she nodded at him.

Letting Shinji's hand drop to the table as if she had simply stopped caring about it, she said, “You acted like anyone else would. Nobody likes feeling helpless when somebody they l... love is in danger.”

Her stumble over _that_ word went thankfully unnoticed by Shinji. “Yeah...”

He abruptly stood up and walked over to the cafeteria window. Asuka was hot on his heels after noticing the confused stares of the other people at the table. She stepped up beside him and watched as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, but...?” Asuka could tell that he had something else to get off his chest.

“But... I _really_ don't like feeling useless,” the boy finally replied. “Especially when I can actually do something.”

“Nerd Stooge and I already told you, dummy. All of NERV is out there looking for her.”

“No, not that. I know I wouldn't contribute much to a search.” Shinji sighed heavily and leaned his head against the window. “But there is something in my power to accomplish, next time that... these Revenants attack.”

Asuka froze. Was he really suggesting...?

“I hated, _hated_ sitting in that command centre while you and Rei were out there fighting,” Shinji said as he turned to fully face her. “As much as I loathe the Evas, I couldn't stand the thought of something happening to you just because I didn't feel like going out there myself. When I saw you go down, the first thing I thought of was...”

“Getting into Unit-01,” Asuka finished for him, to which he nodded. “And you did it. Despite not being in one for six months- well, that one time when you were catatonic doesn't count. You still tried to join us.”

“But  it wouldn't start !” Shinji almost cried. “I tried as hard as I could, but nothing worked!” He turned back to the window and rested his head against it once more.

Glancing behind her at the table to see if their friends were looking at them, Asuka took that moment to rest a hand on the distraught boy's shoulder. “Stop thinking about that. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on stress and the fact that you were rusty. I'm sure if you try again when there isn't so much pressure, you'll do a lot better. Just don't be surprised if your sync ratio is lower than you expect. Hell, my own score dropped like a rock the first time I got in Unit-02 this year.”

Shinji gave a faint chuckle. “I bet it didn't take you long to fix that though.”

“Yeah, but there is a bit of a... handicap in Rei's and my Evas.”

“Huh? Handicap?” This time when he brought his head up, his expression was one of utter confusion.

“Yyyeah...” Asuka slowly said, rubbing the back of her head. She hadn't intended to bring up the subject of the new residents in their Evangelions, but it was too late now. “You know how... our mothers were inside our Evas?” Shinji grimly nodded, and his right hand clenched again, but soon relaxed once more. “Well... my mother is still in Instrumentality, and I don't know what was in Rei's Eva, but Adam and Lilith gave our Evas a piece of their souls so we could still pilot.”

“And... what about mine?” Shinji asked, clearly dreading whatever the answer would be.

“We don't know,” Asuka replied with a shrug. “Rei said that Lilith tried to put another soul fragment into Unit-01 but it got repelled, and she didn't want to risk any damage by forcing it in.” She brightened up. “Hey, maybe that means your mother is still in there!”

The reaction she received was almost exactly the opposite of what she expected. Shinji's entire face twisted into a grimace, and then Asuka remembered what her own mother had told her in Instrumentality. Yui Ikari had _deliberately_ let herself be consumed by Unit-01. She had _chosen_ to leave her husband and son alone, scarring a three-year-old boy by essentially being murdered in front of him.

“ _Scheiße_ ,” she whispered. “Sorry, Shinji.”

The window fogged up slightly at the Third Child's deep exhalation of breath. “It's... fine, Asuka.”

Asuka decided it was time to throw caution to the wind. The presence of other people wasn't going to stop her this time. She wrapped an arm around Shinji's torso and drew him a little closer.

To hell with what anybody else thought.

* * *

Misato glared at the image on the screen in front of her. It resisted her attempts to make it make any more sense.

A van was parked outside one of NERV's surface access gates, its driver standing next to it with arms akimbo and wearing a balaclava and sunglasses.

The person had just 'requested' her presence specifically, claiming he had something to give her. And that he knew where Rei Ayanami was. Something that even the MAGI, after two hours of intense searching, could not achieve.

“This is obviously a trap,” Ritsuko cautioned from the other side of the commander's desk. “Just give the order and that idiot will be reduced to nothing but a smear on the road.” The scientist's irritation at the impotence of her beloved computer system was beginning to leak into her speech.

Somebody had  kidnapped one of NERV's people, and for the first few minutes it had been as if a beehive had been knocked over as military personnel scrambled into departing aircraft and technicians did everything possible to make the search easier. Now things had settled into a tense silence as they waited and prayed for some good news. Even the local police force had been drafted into the hunt, as most of the vehicles with NERV plates had been taken off the road to avoid confusion as the hunt progressed.

“Can you guarantee me with absolute certainty that the MAGI can find Rei?” Misato asked, not looking away from the screen. As if sensing her gaze, the man waved at the security camera. He was not visibly armed, but for all they knew the van could very well be carrying an N2 mine.

“...Not as such, no.” Ritsuko paused. “You're actually thinking of going out there.”

“Not thinking,” Misato replied as she got out of her chair. “Doing.”

In the end, the purple-haired commander of NERV had to acquiesce to having half a dozen guards escorting her as well as two gunships on standby before Ritsuko would let her leave the office.

The journey was made in tense silence. As they neared the gate, the team assigned to Misato readied their weapons and moved ahead to make ready for the gate to open.

As the massive doors opened, Misato noticed the man hurriedly stubbing out a cigarette before turning to face them. “Commander Katsuragi,” he said welcomingly, arms spread wide. “Glad you finally decided to come out here.”

“Tell me where Rei is,” Misato demanded.

“Don't worry, she's fine,” was the lazy reply as the man patted the air in reassurance. “She's unharmed and close by.”

Waving a hand at her escort to order them to remain where they were, the angry woman stalked up to him and said, “Oh? Let me guess, you're here to demand ransom, then. What do you want? Money? The Evas?”

The man was still for a moment, before he slapped a hand to his forehead and laughed. “Oh great, we got some crossed wires here!” he eventually exclaimed. “No, no, I don't want anything. I'm here to _return_ something to you.”

“W-wait, what?!” Misato stammered out. “Y-you mean...”

In response, the man slowly walked to the side of the van and opened the door. The escorts, already twitchy, brought their weapons up to track him. He leaned inside for a moment, and the Commander heard him fumbling about a bit, before straightening up and stepping away from the vehicle carrying-

“ _Rei!”_

The unconscious girl was whisked out of the stunned man's hands almost before he could stop in front of Misato, who was now fiercely hugging the First Child to her chest. Tears were threatening to leak from her eyes at the safe return of one of her Children.

“Uh... alright then,” the man slowly said, letting his arms drop to his side before raising one hand to scratch at the back of his head. “I'm glad I could help.”

“How did _you_ of all people find her?” Misato asked disbelievingly. “Even the MAGI couldn't find anything.”

“Trade secret, I'm afraid,” he said apologetically. “But you should at least have a clue who we are. After all, you helped us get started on cleaning up SEELE.”

Ritsuko had to have been keeping an eye on the situation, because a gurney was soon wheeled out for the First Child. Misato grudgingly laid the girl down and watched as she was wheeled off into the Geofront.

“You're the group that's been hunting down their supporters. The ones making them disappear,” she finally said.

“Yep. Somebody we both know helped you find the truth, and now we're tidying things up so that truth doesn't get twisted by influential people in the wrong place.”

“Kaji...” Misato blinked, and turned back to the grinning man. “And who the hell are you, anyway? Why couldn't you just give Rei back to us, instead of making me come out here?! You almost got killed by an angry and impotent scientist, you know!”

“Well...” The man sheepishly shrugged. “I wanted to see the woman Ryoji Kaji talked so much about. You're as beautiful as he said you were.”

That brought a blush to Misato's cheeks, for the first time in a long time. But then she frowned. Something wasn't adding up about this person coming out of nowhere and wanting to speak to her, bringing back her kidnapped foster daughter. She stepped closer and squinted at him, trying to see past the sunglasses, before suddenly reaching out to his balaclava.

“Wh-hey!”

The cloth and sunglasses were yanked off his head, some hair almost coming out at the roots as well thanks to Misato's iron grip.

The unshaven man backed up a little, then looked at her and sighed. “You just had to spoil my surprise, didn't you, Katsuragi?”

“K-Kaji?!”

* * *

Word of the eternally scruffy triple-agent's return spread rapidly through the Geofront, stopping just outside the cafeteria entrance where Misato and Ryoji Kaji came to a halt.

The purple-haired woman was both ecstatic and angry. She wanted to hug and kiss Kaji, but at the same time give him a black eye and kick him below the belt. When the shock of seeing him face to face had worn off, she had settled for almost fainting. As he had run in to catch her, she had taken the opportunity to slap him across the face, to which he had simply responded with that same smug grin he was still wearing now.

“I suppose you're taking me to see Asuka,” he guessed.

“Yes, she's going to want to know how you're here too,” Misato replied. “Not to mention that it was you that brought Shinji's sister back.”

“Sister, huh?” Kaji raised an eyebrow. “Looks like I've missed out on some things.”

“What, you didn't steal _that_ info from the MAGI too?”

“Katsuragi, I only had access to the data that I needed to stop SEELE. Anything else was out of my reach.”

Misato crossed her arms and stared intently at him, but could sense no deception coming off the man. She had, almost out of necessity, gotten very good at detecting when he was lying to her, to the point where she had known perfectly well that Kaji wasn't going to survive the mission after that fateful answering machine message before he mentioned that he might not make it back.

So why was he now here? He should have died well before Third Impact. Not that she was complaining, of course.

“Fine, wait here until I call you in,” she eventually said, before turning and entering the cafeteria.

Inside, her eye was immediately drawn to the window, where Asuka appeared to be comforting Shinji. The other teenagers seemed to be deliberately not looking in that direction, and she wondered how long her two kids had been like that. She walked over and tapped Asuka on the shoulder.

The  girl jolted as if she had been electrocuted, her arm shooting back to her side. “M-Misato!”

Now wasn't an appropriate time to get into teasing them, so Misato simply said, “I've got good news and better news. Which do you want to hear first?”

The Second and Third Children looked sidelong at each other, before Shinji spoke up. “Um... good news first I guess?”

With a nod, their adoptive mother turned and yelled, “Get in here, you horrible man!” before looking back at them. She wanted to see the look on Asuka's face in particular. How would the girl react?

“Hey kids.”

“ _K-Kaji?!”_

Ah. Just like she did. Minus the slap.

Misato had to eventually pry the redhead away from Kaji so that he could sit down. Even then, Asuka began to barrage him with questions. While Toji and Kensuke recognised him from their meeting on the  _Over the Rainbow_ , back when the Sixth Angel had attacked, Hikari didn't know who he was, and had to be brought up to speed. When Asuka was finally convinced to settle down, Kaji launched into his story.

After kidnapping the former Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki for SEELE, Kaji had sneaked in and rescued the old man, putting the triple-agent on SEELE's kill list. It hadn't taken long for their assassin to find him and shoot him.

Kaji thumped a hand against his chest. “The fool didn't realise I was wearing body armour. The bullets still tore through it, but they was slowed down enough that I survived. If he was any kind of  _real_ assassin, he should have put a third one in my head.”

“You should tell SEELE to ask for their money back,” Asuka snarkily replied.

With his trademark grin, Kaji continued. “I crawled away from there after about half an hour of bleeding all over the floor. Took me a while, but I made it to a back alley doctor I knew.” The grin faded as he turned sheepish. “I... uh... don't remember much after that. I was probably unconscious when Third Impact hit.”

“Wait a minute... I saw you in Instrumentality,” said Misato. “You said you weren't real!”

_'I am just the Kaji in your mind.'_

The man gulped nervously. “I... well... you see...”

“ _You lied to me!”_ the woman roared as she began to slap at Kaji's shoulder.

“Ow! Hey! Quit it!” Kaji put his arms up to block the slaps. “Okay, okay, I was told to lie to you!”

The blows ceased as Misato froze in confusion. “You were... told to?”

Kaji peeked over his raised arms. “Yeah. Ayanami... or Lilith... she wanted you to leave Instrumentality to help Shinji, so she told me to make you believe I wasn't real. She didn't want you to be torn between me and him. And...” He gingerly reached out and put a hand on Misato's shoulder. “You made the right decision.”

“... And _you_ still have a hell of a lot to explain,” the woman grumpily said, folding her arms and deliberately looking away from him. “So keep going.”

“Oh, right. Well, I came back in... March I think. A bunch of us came out of the sea at once. Fortunately there was nobody who recognised me, so I was able to disappear quickly.” Kaji placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward onto his upraised hands. “I knew that SEELE was still likely to be active in some fashion. I found a few people I knew I could trust, they found more people, and before long I had my own little anti-SEELE group formed.”

“And then you started stealing data from the MAGI to track them down,” Misato replied. “I thought those names were just going out to somebody in your little spy group and they were carrying out the missions in remembrance of you.”

“Nope. They came straight to me, and I handed the orders out.” The man's expression turned sober. “Those names are the reason I didn't contact you sooner, Katsuragi, I wanted to wipe SEELE out completely before I came back to you.”

“What about today's attack?” Asuka inquired. “Shouldn't they have been handled by your team well before such a thing could even get organised?”

A guilty look flashed across Kaji's face for a split second. “That... was kind of my fault.”

Misato's voice turned to ice. Her kids had been the victims of the attack. “Explain. _Quickly.”_

Kaji's group had discovered that some of the SEELE sympathisers had banded together and formed what was almost a cult, intent on bringing about what they called 'The True Third Impact'. He had decided to simply observe them, watching as they brought in more and more loyalists. After all, why spend time hunting for something when somebody else was practically bringing it to you?

A mole was slipped in, and misinformation was spread to try and muddy the waters. But the mole had been compromised and almost killed only a few days ago. News about the kidnapping of Rei Ayanami had arrived only a few hours before the operation began, which had left no time to prepare to stop it. Kaji had been forced to focus on preventing the loyalists from fleeing with Rei, and the false Section Two agents had been cornered in an underground garage and eliminated with extreme prejudice.

Ryoji Kaji had a dim view of people who would try to kidnap the Children.

But the attack on the apartment complex had come completely out of nowhere. With the loyalists involved in the operation all dead, there was confusion as to  _why_ Shinji and Asuka had been targeted as well.

Misato and Asuka shared a concerned look. Kaji noticed it, but didn't comment.

“I haven't had time to get back to my people and sort things out yet,” he said. “But almost all of the SEELE remnants have been taken care of by this point. I'll spare you kids the technical details. I get the feeling only Glasses there would be interested anyway.” Kensuke's face fell, and the others at the table chuckled. “I need a little more time to make sure there's nobody else left that would be willing to follow their hideous plan.”

“I'll make Ritsuko loan you the MAGI if necessary,” Misato offered. Her expression grew dark. “I tell you this now as the Supreme Commander of NERV: I don't want _anything_ left of SEELE when you're done.”

“Yes ma'am!” Kaji replied with a mock salute. “Do you mind if I start now, before our enemies can reorganise?”

“Get the hell out of here,” the woman said with a dismissive wave. “I still can't decide whether to punch you or kiss you.”

“Why not both? Like that time-”

“Finish that sentence and it'll be just punching.”

Kaji, evidently deciding not to push Misato, declined to comment and simply walked away, giving a lazy wave over his shoulder as he passed through the cafeteria entrance.

“A thousand yen says Akagi slaps him,” Asuka remarked as she watched him leave.

Misato rolled her eyes. “That's not a bet, that's a guarantee.”

Shinji's attention returned to his meal. To Asuka's relief, he had stopped picking at it, and the plate was almost empty now. He stopped with a piece of food hovering in front of his mouth for a moment, before putting it back on the plate and asking, “If Mister Kaji was the good news, what's the better news?”

Asuka's eyes widened as something that Kaji had just said came to the front of her mind. Her chair tipped over and she sprinted out of the cafeteria.

“Get your head out of the clouds, Shin-man!” Toji replied, a look of exasperation on his face. “Weren't you listening?”

“Um...”

Misato told him straight up what the better news was. Half a second later, his chair had joined Asuka's on the ground.

* * *

“Took you long enough, Third.”

Asuka was already in the elevator, but she had kept the doors open for Shinji. It wouldn't really be fair to make him wait, after all.

“Well... I guess I'm glad you convinced me to go swimming,” Shinji replied as he stepped in, panting only slightly as Asuka pressed the button for the medical ward's floor.

“I still want you to go out jogging with Jock Stooge though.” Asuka stealthily patted her hip pocket. Kensuke had slipped her the replacement tape for Shinji's SDAT during the car ride to the Geofront. For once she was glad that the Third Child listened to a nearly-dead music format; a compact disc case wouldn't have fit in her pockets. “Rei worked out how to help you keep your focus away from other people.”

“O-oh? What is it?”

The elevator door opened, and Asuka said, “I'll show you when we get home.” She strode over to the counter and almost demanded the location of Rei Ayanami. The receptionist tapped on her computer for a moment before directing them to Room-102.

It was fortunate that the NERV medical ward was not very busy, as the redhead barrelling down the corridor would have caused quite a few problems otherwise. Shinji was simply dragged along in her wake until they stopped outside the door leading to Rei's room.

“Crap, I just realised we don't actually know if she's alright...” Asuka thought out loud, one hand on the door handle.

“What do you mean?” Shinji was almost dancing from foot to foot in his anxiousness to see his sister, looking rather like he needed to go to the bathroom.

The moment Shinji had been informed of his sisters disappearance had almost scared Asuka with how angry he had been. She had seen what the Third Child was capable of when he was angry, and the Fourteenth Angel had died horribly as a result.  _'What if those SEELE bastards crippled her or something? How would he react to-'_ “Hey!”

To her surprise, Asuka was pushed away from the door by Shinji, who had evidently gotten sick of waiting. The boy ran into the room, and she sighed and followed him in.

Inside, Rei was sitting up in bed, hands folded in her lap as she stared out the window. Her head turned towards the pair as they entered. She seemed entirely unharmed, to the relief of both teens.

Until she spoke.

“Pilot Soryu. Pilot Ikari,” Rei said in a dull monotone. “What is the reason for your visit?”

Horror and despair crossed the Second and Third Children's faces. Had she somehow lost her memory? This was far worse than anything Asuka could have imagined.

Then the side of Rei's mouth began to twitch.

“Is... something the... matter?” the First Child asked, now evidently struggling to keep her face neutral. The effort quickly became too much and she began to giggle. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth, but the damage had been done.

“You...” Asuka began. Next to her, Shinji was almost collapsing in relief. “You pulled a _prank_ on us?!”

Rei nodded, dropping her hand back to her lap and smiling openly. “I believe this is one of those situations where a camera would have been useful.”

“ _Mein Gott,”_ the redhead gasped, returning to her native tongue out of surprise. Rei Ayanami had just thoroughly _japed_ them. “Wondergirl... you... you magnificent b-” She stopped and censored herself for the benefit of the boy standing beside her. “You magnificent person.”

Once his shock wore off, Shinji moved rapidly towards the bed and threw his arms around Rei in a tight hug, eliciting a small gasp of surprise from the bluenette before she returned the gesture.

“Are you alright?” Shinji mumbled into his sister's ear. “I was so worried about you.”

“I was sedated by the men who abducted me,” was Rei's gentle response. “I am simply here for observation.”

Asuka frowned and folded her arms. “Those idiots that kidnapped you... I think they know what part you two played in Third Impact.”

Rei nodded grimly as the hug ended. “Yes. Before the sedative took effect, I heard one of my captors mentioning Lilith.” A strange look crossed her face. “Wait, us two?” After being filled in on the apartment attack, her expression turned sour.

“H-hey, there's nothing to worry about now,” Shinji said in an attempt to reassure his sister. “Mister Kaji and his group have been dealing with SEELE, and he thinks they're almost completely gone.”

His fist clenched slightly, a gesture that the Second Child easily noticed. She walked up beside Shinji and 'accidentally' brushed her hand very slowly against his, the gesture hidden from Rei by the height of the bed. Her ploy worked, and Shinji's hand ceased its twitching as he looked at Asuka in confusion.

“What?” the redhead asked innocently, before changing the subject. “Hey, why don't you tell Rei about your decision?”

The red-faced boy was seemingly as eager as her to pretend nothing happened, as he began to stumble over his words while speaking of his choice to pilot Unit-01 once more.

“You will join us in our fight against the Revenants?” Rei asked in clarification. At a nod from Shinji, she smiled. “I know how difficult it must have been for you to make such a decision. Thank you, brother.”

Asuka didn't know what possessed her to break up the serious mood, but she accomplished it with some completely coincidental contact between her hand and Shinji's as she moved away from the bed. The look on Shinji's face as she stopped at the door was priceless.

“Speaking of which, we should let Misato know about that, Shinji,” she said, keeping her face straight with a modicum of effort. When she saw the boy glance at Rei, she added, “First, you may as well come along too. It's clear there's nothing wrong with you, and sitting in a hospital bed is boring as hell.”

All three Children knew the pain of sitting in a hospital bed with nothing to do. Perhaps that was why Rei did not even think of declining as she asked Asuka and Shinji to give her some privacy.

Mere minutes later, the three were stopped in the lobby by the receptionist, who attempted to send the First Child to bed. Asuka simply told the woman to put her complaint in writing, and that she would deliver it to the Commander herself. The receptionist immediately backed down and nervously wished them a good day.


	24. Chapter 24

“ _Shinji, how are you feeling?”_

The Third Child looked around his entry plug. It had not yet been inserted and filled with LCL, as final checks were under way. He looked up at the comm window and replied, “Um... nervous.”

Misato nodded at him from the other side of the connection.  _“I guess that's to be expected. Just relax, we'll go as slow as you want.”_

Since a test for Shinji and Unit-01 had been organised, the decision had been made to give the First and Second Children an impromptu sync test first while the purple Evangelion and its pilot were preparing.

Asuka stood on the gantry next to the entry plug, an LCL-stained towel dangling around her neck as she leaned into the plug. Her sync test had gone without incident as usual, and she was now here to lend her support to the Third Child. “Remember, if you sync, that'd be great. If you can't, then I'd better not see you acting like you've let us down. Got it?”

“Y-yes, Asuka,” Shinji replied, trying to quell the uneasy feeling in his stomach as he twisted in his seat to regard her.

“Good.” Asuka smiled at him, then slapped the metal tube with one gloved hand before stepping away to let it close. As the plug was inserted into Unit-01, she moved out of the testing chamber. While she would have much preferred to remain as close as possible, safety precautions meant she had to make do with watching from the control room.

At the doorway leading out of the chamber, she stopped and glanced back at the purple Evangelion one last time. Almost half of its body was locked down with massive metal restraints for this test. While Misato and Ritsuko had faith in Shinji, that faith was lacking for Unit-01 itself.

Asuka shuddered, recalling the last time the beast had come to life. If given the choice, she'd rather have Shinji never able to pilot than to have him trapped inside a berserking Evangelion. Especially one with a limitless energy supply and an unstable temperament.

The S2 Organ inside Unit-01 had been dormant ever since the aftermath of the first Revenant's attack. Nobody had the courage to try and turn it on, but the Evangelion itself was known to activate without a signal from NERV. Could the S2 Organ do the same?

While heading towards the control room, Asuka brought her towel up to vigorously dry her hair. She had even foregone a shower in order to not miss the activation test, and as she entered the room she saw that the First Child had apparently thought the same. Both female pilots were anxiously watching to see how Shinji would fare in his first real attempt at synchronising.

Asuka barely noticed the time pass as the test progressed. Unit-01 had predictably refused to activate on the first attempt, but she knew that Shinji was not going to give up so soon. An hour passed, and the LCL on the bodies of Rei and Asuka dried into a strange-smelling crust, but neither were willing to leave. The best that the technicians had gotten out of the recalcitrant machine in that hour had been a few flickers on a console that had sent Asuka's hopes soaring only to crash back down again moments later. At one point, Ritsuko suggested taking a break, and the poor woman withered under the combined glares of the two pilots and Misato. Shinji himself stubbornly refused, claiming that he'd only leave the plug when he succeeded.

It wasn't until the start of the third hour that something significant finally occurred.

“Unit-01 has activated!”

Asuka jumped in shock. She had been absently chewing on a fingernail for the past half an hour, and the sudden announcement almost made her bite the tip of her finger off.

"Is everything okay in there, Shinji?" Misato asked nervously. Both the Commander and Sub-Commander looked like they were desperate for a cigarette.

“ _It's... cold...”_ Shinji eventually replied, eyes still closed. _“Why is it so cold?”_

“Cold? Do you mean the LCL temperature?” Ritsuko inquired. “Let me adjust the-”

“ _No.”_ The Third Child shook his head vigorously. _“The Eva itself. Unit-01 feels cold.”_

Asuka glanced at Rei, the same concerned expression on both their faces. With the loss of the original souls inhabiting their own Units, so too had they lost the warm comforting sensation that sitting in an active Evangelion had given them.

Did this mean that Yui Ikari was no longer in Unit-01?

“Shinji,” Asuka called out. The boy opened his eyes and looked through the comm window at her. “Can you... can you feel _her_ at all in there?”

“ _...Her? Oh...”_ His face contorted into a grimace. _“I don't really know.”_ The grimace faded slightly as Shinji closed his eyes once more. Several tense minutes passed before he eventually sighed and said, _“I can't tell. There might be... something that feels like her, but it's so faint I can't be certain._ ”

Rei stepped closer to Asuka and whispered, “Lilith attempted to put a piece of her soul in there, but was repelled. Perhaps Yui Ikari is still present, but has closed herself off. Perhaps she regrets the choices she made.”

Asuka frowned and stepped away from the screen before softly growling. “Good! That crazy bitch deliberately  _abandoned_ her son, traumatised Shinji by making him watch his mother die, and then decided ten years later to not bother helping him when I was in trouble, leaving him to believe that it was  _his_ fault I died.”

Rei made no attempt to defend the person who was the entire reason she existed. The blood of Yui Ikari might flow in her veins, but it was clear she held no emotional attachment to the woman.

Behind them, Ritsuko was talking quietly to Maya. After a minute she looked up at the screen and said, “Alright, Shinji. How do you feel about a sync test?”

Shinji shrugged.  _“Might as well get it out of the way.”_ His tone made it clear that he would have preferred to end the testing now, however.

Ritsuko nodded in understanding. “It won't be a very long one. We've already been here for three hours.”

It still took half an hour for the results to come in, and the glance the scientist gave Misato was not a good one. “We're done here, Shinji. We'll let you get out of there now.”

Shinji shot the screen a look of abject relief as Unit-01 powered down and the comm system switched off.

As Asuka and Rei left the control box to meet their fellow pilot, Asuka heard Ritsuko mutter, “27%. Just barely over the threshold.”

“Give him a bit of time, Rits,” Misato replied. "He hasn't done this in a long while."

The rest of the conversation was cut off by the closing door.

* * *

As expected, there were no physical complications with Rei after her abduction. The teenagers and their families weren't allowed to go home that night, as cleanup and investigation was still under way, and so rooms at NERV were quickly prepared for all of them to stay in. But just as Asuka and Shinji were about to drift off to sleep, the door to their allotted room hissed open. In walked a visibly shaking Rei, and the redhead understood instantly what was wrong. After all, she had seem Shinji acting in a similar fashion.

The First Child was scared.

What followed was an hour of attempting to comfort and reassure  her , but eventually Asuka called for somebody to shift Rei's bed into their room. With the other two pilots in the same room, Rei eventually managed to fall asleep.

The next morning saw Asuka awake first, and she wasn't very surprised to see that Rei had migrated into Shinji's bed during the night, laying down behind him and wrapping her arms around her brother like he was a large teddy bear. While she knew that the act was purely out of a desire to keep the fear away, she had still been insanely jealous of the girl.

Even when they were finally allowed to return to the apartment, the same pattern repeated itself for the next few days. Rei also refused to go to school, even leave the apartment, and nobody thought it unusual considering the circumstances.

After several nights of this routine, Rei didn't come into their room at all one night. The next morning, the bluenette, back in her school uniform, expressed her gratitude for letting her sleep in Shinji's bed, before heading off to school.

Shinji insisted on having a test every day during this time period, and nobody had the heart to deny him. His sync ratio climbed, but in incredibly small amounts. Running diagnostics didn't help much, but he eventually made it to 30%. At that point, the decision was made to run Unit-01 through some simulations.

They had to start with the complete basics, simply because the reaction times of Unit-01 were badly hampered by the low sync ratio, but Shinji's prior experience allowed him to eventually pass the simulations despite the handicap.

* * *

Asuka discovered she was more proud of Shinji than she could have ever anticipated when he finally managed to defeat a simulacrum of the Third Angel. She had to almost physically restrain herself from hugging the boy when he got out of the entry plug, settling instead for a congratulatory pat on the shoulder and a smile.

After all three pilots had showered, dressed and gone back to the apartment, Shinji busied himself with laundry while Rei caught up with the homework she had missed. Asuka was in the lounge room watching television when Shinji came in and passed something to her.

“Hey Asuka, this was in the pocket of your pants.” It was the music tape that Kensuke had made.

“Crap, I forgot about this,” Asuka sighed. “Thanks.”

Before Shinji could comment on why she had a cassette, the redhead disappeared into her bedroom and brought out the SDAT player from its hiding place. She plugged in the headphones and listened to the tape for a few minutes, smiling at the much improved sound quality.

When she heard the washing machine start up, Asuka went out into the kitchen with her hands behind her back and intercepted Shinji as he left the laundry.

“Hey, remember a few days ago when I mentioned that Rei thought of something to help you?” she asked.

Shinji nodded. “Yes, but then you apparently forgot about it.”

“I did _not_ forget!” Asuka replied with a huff. “It just slipped my mind, what with everything that happened.”

“Um... you said only a few minutes ago that you...”

Asuka huffily turned away, folding her arms at the same time to conceal their contents. “Well, if you're going to be like that, then I guess I  _won't_ show you what her idea was.”

“W-wait!”

Inwardly, Asuka smiled. She was obviously not really going to keep the surprise from him, and he undoubtedly knew that as well. It just felt _good_ to act like this again, but without any actual malice. “Oh fine, I _suppose_ I'll show you, despite how rude you just were to me.”

“Rude? Me?”

Shinji wisely shut up at the look Asuka shot him over her shoulder.

“Alright, close your eyes and hold out your hands,” she ordered. The boy did so, and she placed the SDAT player in his outstretched hands, holding back the headphones to keep him guessing a little longer.

When Asuka let Shinji open his eyes, he almost dropped the music player in shock. “M-my... where did you get this?!” he exclaimed.

“Rei found it,” replied Asuka. “She noticed how you tend lose yourself in music, and thought this would be a good way to keep your thoughts away from other people. Have a listen to your tape now.”

Shinji looked at her suspiciously, but plugged in the headphones and started the SDAT. He closed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side as he attempted to work out what he was listening for. Finally, he opened his eyes and asked, “Is... this a fresh tape?” After hearing what Kensuke had done to help, he smiled earnestly, saying, “Thank you.”

“You're welcome. But Rei and I have a condition for you using this.” Asuka put her hands on his shoulders as she continued. “Please, _don't_ use this to shut out the world when you don't need to. If you're feeling down, _talk_ to somebody. There are plenty of people who'd be happy to help.”

For a long time, Shinji stared down at his SDAT player, his hand clenching around it occasionally. Just as Asuka thought he was going to crack the case, he looked up and said, “...Alright. I'll only use it to go outside.”

Asuka smiled widely. “Good. Want to try it out now?”

  
“Um... what?”

“We never got to go to the music store.” A look of sudden realisation crossed Shinji's face. “And... damnit!”

“What's wrong?”

Asuka slapped a palm to her forehead. “I left my violin in the Section Two car that took us to NERV,” she groaned.

Fortunately, the same vehicle was sitting in their parking lot, and a politely-worded request got the violin returned. A look at Shinji made Asuka change her plan slightly, and a second polite request resulted in them being driven to the mall by Section Two.

The redhead kept a close eye on Shinji as they proceeded through the semi-crowded shopping centre. Though her plan seemed to be working, as the boy didn't appear to be reacting much to passersby, he still occasionally glanced nervously at anybody whose path took them too close to him.

The musical instrument store was almost completely empty, with only one other person browsing the instruments and somebody behind the counter. Asuka frowned. It wasn't Masami, but the man did look like a younger version of him.

“May I help you today?” the man said as Asuka approached the front desk. Behind her, Shinji had taken his headphones off and gravitated to the sheet music, flicking through several pages.

“I certainly hope so,” she replied, carefully placing the violin case on the counter. “Do you happen to know anywhere in town that repairs antique instruments?”

“Hmm. How bad is the damage?”

In response, Asuka opened the case and turned it around to show him the violin. She nodded at his inquiring look, and the man carefully extracted the damaged instrument. While the neck hadn't snapped off entirely, any attempt to play the violin would likely finish the job, and Asuka didn't particularly care to see how it would sound as it currently was. She was already dreading the decrease in sound quality the antique instrument would suffer as a result of the damage and repair.

“Well, I have two pieces of good news for you,” the young man said after a minute. “But also some bad news. This is fixable, and I know somebody who can do it.”

“If the bad news is the price, I don't care about that,” Asuka interrupted. “I just want this fixed.”

With a chuckle and a wave of his hand, the clerk replied, “No, no, not the price. My father can repair this, and probably even make it as good as new.”

The redhead interrupted again. “Is your father Masami?”

“Oh, you know him already?” A raised eyebrow from the clerk. “You've shopped here before, haven't you?”

Lowering her voice, Asuka replied, “Yeah, he helped me get the right gift for my... friend.”

“I see.” He placed the violin back in its case and excused himself as he stepped into the back room. He returned a moment later, a familiar grey-haired old man in tow who had his right arm in a sling.

Masami lightly rebuked his son when he found out who was in the store, before explaining the bad news to Asuka. He had the ability to repair the violin, but had broken his arm during the last Revenant attack when an inconsiderate person had knocked him over while trying to get into the Angel shelter. It was going to take a couple more weeks to heal, and even then he wouldn't be able to put much strain on the limb.

Asuka groaned in complaint at the next obstacle preventing her from joining Shinji in his musical pastime, but she knew there was nothing that could be done, unless she wanted to go looking for somebody else that could repair antiques. But now that she knew that Masami was capable of such a task, could she trust anybody else? Without even knowing Shinji, the old man had picked out exactly the right cello bow for him. What wonder could he work on a damaged musical instrument?

At Masami's suggestion, she decided to leave the violin with him. While he was unable to repair it just yet, he could at least examine it and organise what needed to be done.

Afterwards, she introduced Masami to Shinji, who was now holding several sheet music books. Shinji bowed low and thanked the man for his effort in selecting the boy's birthday gift from Asuka.

“One day, if it is alright with you, I would like to hear you play, young man,” Masami requested.

Shinji gulped nervously, and Asuka chose to answer for him. “He'd be happy to.”

Both of their phones chose that moment to ring.

The two teenagers stared at each other for a moment, all too aware of what such a thing meant. Asuka almost ran out of the store, while Shinji fumbled with the music books in his hands.

“I'll hold onto them for you,” Masami offered, taking them from his unresisting hands. “Go and protect us.”

Throwing a grateful look at the old man, Shinji ran out of the store to catch up with Asuka. As he drew level with her, she reached out and latched onto his hand before accelerating into a run herself.

“Shinji?” the redhead growled.

  
“Um... yes?”

“Remind me after this is over to teach you some German swear words.”

“Um... okay...”

* * *

Two submarines had been borrowed from the U.N. by NERV to track down the point of origin of the Revenants after the third attack. While they hadn't had any luck yet, they had been fortunate enough to detect signs of another one making its way towards Tokyo-3, and NERV had called its pilots in early to prepare them.

The afternoon sun shone brightly, reflecting off the blade of a gigantic axe clutched tightly by equally gigantic armoured red fists. Unit-02 stood in the middle of a street on the outskirts of the city, angry green eyes staring in the direction of the Tokyo-3 bay. More armoury and defense buildings had been completed over the last few months, and for the first time since last year, there were weapon batteries standing by to assist in punishing any potential invaders.

Behind Unit-02, hiding partially in the shadow of a tall windowless building, Unit-00 aimed a long rifle past the red Evangelion, focusing on the same point over the horizon. Rei didn't actually _need_ to bring the weapon up to the cyclopean red eye in the centre of Unit-00's head, as the scope on the rifle was really just a camera slaved to her entry plug, but the action felt more natural.

A loud, petulant tone finally cut through the comm system as Asuka gave voice to her impatience.

“Where the hell _is_ this thing?! It better not be late to its own funeral!”

“ _Asuka, relax for a moment will you? We're tracking the Revenant's progress, it will be here shortly.”_

The German girl gave an annoyed huff at the reply from NERV's command centre. “Relax? Why don't you try sitting in this tin can for ages, Misato?”

“ _Sure. Just invent a way to cut fift-seventeen years off my life and I'll give it a shot.”_

A third, authoritative voice cut in before the argument could devolveany further.

“ _Your target will be coming into range in three minutes, so both of you settle down. And I can't believe I have to say that to a **superior officer**_. _”_

* * *

Deep underground, a soft slap was heard in the command centre of NERV, as Ritsuko's palm met her face for the umpteenth time since she'd first met Misato Katsuragi. The chief scientist and sub-commander slowly shook her head as she realised she had grown used to these arguments between the Commander of NERV and its most abrasive pilot.

That didn't mean, however, she was anywhere close to _enjoying_ having to break them up when they started taunting each other as if the command structure didn't exist. Both Misato and Asuka had an uncanny ability to irritate her, and she was almost positive that most of their bickering was deliberately designed to tick her off.

Standing a few feet away, Misato turned and glanced at Ritsuko, a disappointed look on her face for a few seconds before hardening up as she turned back to the holographic display projected in the air beforethe control stations.

Kaji had disappeared once more, and the tracking device that Ritsuko had sneaked onto him had been found in a bin on the other side of the city. Now there was another Revenant attack. Misato Katsuragi was _not_ in a good mood as a result.

The display showed an overhead view of the city above their heads, with the three Evangelions on the left side, and a red blip designating their enemy on the right, slowly moving through the Tokyo-3 bay area. Below the map **,** deep red numbers counted down the seconds before it breached the surface, and to the right, data streamed past as the supercomputers of NERV analysed the target, attempting to acquire as much information as possible on the enemy. Every little bit helped.

“How are their sync ratios?” asked Misato, finally breaking the uneasy silence that almost always preceded an engagement.

A few taps on the keyboard, and Makoto Hyuga replied, “Rei is at 64%, Asuka's at 70%, and Shinji is... 35%.”

Just by looking at Shinji's eyes, Misato had known there was no point asking if he was going to join the fight. She sighed heavily. Despite the best efforts of everybody involved over the last few days, the Third Child's progress was painfully slow. She had seriously considered simply refusing to let Unit-01 launch, regardless of Shinji's determination, but the woman knew that such an act would be crippling for his morale.

_ 'I bet even if his sync ratio hadn't increased at all, he still would have chosen to join Asuka,' _ she thought to herself.

She was not Gendo Ikari. Misato remembered the fiasco surrounding the Fifteenth Angel all too well. The former Commander had held Shinji back for no better reason than that he didn't want to put the soul of his wife in jeopardy. And both Shinji and Asuka had suffered terribly for it.

This time, there was no reason besides concern for Shinji's safety to hold him back. Despite her trepidation, Misato had made her decision. Unit-01 had been launched, but she had requested that Shinji stay out of melee combat and focus on attacking from range; at least the targeting computers had the backing of the MAGI to assist him in aiming, to compensate somewhat for his slower reaction times.

Unit-01 now stood well inside the city itself, balancing Unit-00's Positron Rifle on top of an armoury building, with a couple of Pallet Rifles stashed nearby. Privately, Misato knew that the standard issue weaponry would likely be ineffective against the increasing abilities of the Revenants, but she would rather burn the entire munitions budget of NERV than admit to Shinji that his efforts wouldn't amount to much.

The countdown timer reached 00:30:00 and an alarm chimed to signify imminent contact. Misato closed her eyes as her hand reached for her neck, clenching around the silver cross necklace that hung there.

Maybe she should have given it to Shinji again.

* * *

As the timer in her entry plug reached 00:30:00, Asuka clenched her Progressive Axe tighter and grittedher teeth, throwing a glance towards the middle of the city.

She, too, was nervous about having Shinji involved in this battle. If anything, she had tried to push harder than Misato to keep Unit-01 grounded. But all it had taken was a few words from the Third Child to make her acquiesce.

“ _I don't want to be useless again.”_

“Damnit, Shinji,” Asuka muttered to herself, after making sure no comm channel was open. “Why can't I say no to you?”

Inside Unit-00's entry plug, Rei Ayanami sat, patiently waiting for battle to commence. Only someone who knew her very well, and was staring intently at her face, would notice the faint frown and slightly narrowed eyes indicative of worry on the First Child's face. When she spared a fleeting look at Unit-01, the intensity of the expression deepened slightly.

“ _Contact in ten seconds!”_ announced Misato over the radio.

The NERV gunships led the charge once more, unloading their missiles the moment the Revenant's head broke the water's surface. Its AT-Field predictably flared to life, rendering the heroic efforts of the aircraft pilots useless. The Revenant ignored the gunships as it stomped onto dry land, even as they attempted to circle around to find a gap in its protection.

“ _The MAGI have confirmed that this one is Unit-06, like I predicted,_ ” Ritsuko reported. _“Sorry, but the weak points on this one are covered.”_

This beast was clad in more armour than its predecessor, with the orange shell now extending down most of each arm and leg as well as halfway up the long neck of the Revenant. To Asuka's eyes, it looked like the white beast was wearing a onesie that had shrunk in the wash, and the mental image almost made her chuckle.

“Great, this one has more armour. And...” With a mental command, Asuka's view zoomed in. “It's carrying a weapon too?” Her previous mood was extinguished as she realised just what exactly the Revenant was wielding. A familiar-looking double bladed sword was held loosely in its right hand.

“ _It's one of those shifting lance weapons!”_ somebody in the command centre confirmed for her.

“ _That's... not the Lance of Longinus itself, is it?”_ Shinji worriedly asked. Through the comm window, Asuka could see him clutch at his chest before nervously rubbing the palms of his hands with his thumbs.

“ _No, that's still somewhere in orbit,”_ Ritsuko replied. _“We would have noticed if something went up there to grab it.”_

“ _This weapon is just as deadly, however,”_ Rei reminded them. _“It will still pierce your AT-Field.”_

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Wondergirl,” Asuka angrily said. Her eye was beginning to throb, as was her arm. She slapped a button to close the comm window before tightly clenching her controls. She immediately regretted the action, as the First Child didn't deserve to be a target of her anger. The comm window was silently turned back on.

The first true attack of the day went to Shinji and Unit-01 as the Positron Rifle unleashed a white-hot bolt of energy, aiming directly for the Revenant's red-lipped face.

“Jumping the gun I see,” Asuka remarked as Unit-02 broke into a run, ripping up asphalt and shaking buildings with every step the behemoth took, the power cable unfurling behind her. The shot had simply splashed against the orange barrier, and the Revenant was now staring at Unit-01. She knew she had to get in close and keep its attention away from Shinji. He wouldn't last long in a melee. _'Don't even think like that, Asuka. He's the Third Child. He's invincible.'_

Despite her best effort, she couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that had wedged itself into her brain ever since their phones had rung earlier that day. Asuka had a bad feeling that if she didn't take out this angel, something terrible would happen.

“First, with me! It'll take both of us to erode its AT-Field!”

“ _Affirmative.”_

Asuka let out a war cry as her Evangelion charged  the Revenant . Her axe came around and she swung the weapon horizontally at its torso. The impact could be heard for kilometres around, a discordant musical note, as the gigantic metal blade met the AT-Field.

To her surprise , the Revenant actually reacted to the attack, its feet tearing up chunks of earth as it braced itself and the field with one hand raised. With the way things had been going in their fights, Asuka had half-expected that not even two Evangelions would be able to break through. She grit her teeth as Unit-00 fired over her shoulder.

The extensive simulation training the two female pilots had done together meant that Asuka barely even blinked as the round passed within meters of her Evangelion's head. Rei was _scarily_ accurate. The previous fight didn't really count, as that had been a result of the third Revenant pulling a fast one on them.

In this scenario, just as they had practised, the First Child took her shots wherever she could while staying behind Unit-02, using the camera scope to effectively aim past her partner while at the same time covering their power cables. Meanwhile, Asuka would keep the target's attention on herself, acting as a mobile shield for Unit-00.

And this shield had spikes.

As the two female pilots focused their will on bringing down the Revenant's AT-Field, Unit-02 brought its axe around in a mighty swing at the barrier before the creature could shore up its defenses. Any extra pressure that Asuka could bring to bear would only aid their efforts. Sparks flew as the blade simply skittered across the field, unable to gain any purchase on the frictionless wall.

A second positron round from her left impacted against the barrier, and then a third. The Second Child glanced to her left and saw that Unit-01 had repositioned itself as the fight progressed, and was now standing behind another armoured building, firing as fast as his weapon would allow.

The enemy's field was weakening, and Asuka turned her full attention back to the Revenant.

Obviously not content with simply defending itself, the white Evangelion abruptly brought its weapon into play, shifting to a double-handed grip. The massive sword just barely missed Unit-02's torso when it had to bend almost in half to dodge the first swing.

Now that she was on the back foot, Asuka had something else to concentrate on, besides her attempt to bring down the Revenant's barrier. Thankfully, Unit-00 was still firing constantly as Rei backed up to give Unit-02 some space, kicking their cables back as well. The pulleys for their cables soon activated to take up the slack as the Evangelions moved backwards.

The Progressive Axe c l ashed against the Revenant's weapon again and again as Asuka finally managed to put a halt to the retreat.  Its field was finally down, but now they had to deal with its second layer of defense.

Asuka lost her concentration for a moment as Unit-01 showed up down a side street, where there was no building for him to hide behind, and suffered a cut to her Evangelion's upper left arm. Her own arm burned, but she put it out of her mind. Shinji was now out in the open, firing once again.

With no AT-Field to block it this time, the round slammed into the Revenant's right arm and chest. It shrieked in pain as the armour cracked slightly, before doing something that nobody expected.

It fired back.

Its mouth opened wide, and energy pulsed inside its throat before bursting forth directly at Unit-01. Having advanced slightly down the street, the purple Evangelion had no space to dodge.

“ _Gah!”_

“Oh, that is such bullshit!” Asuka cried out as a familiar cross-shaped explosion appeared over Tokyo-3 once more. “Shinji, you alright?”

“ _I'm... okay, I think. I got my-”_

It fired again.

This time, the explosion was accompanied by a cloud of dust as Unit-01 flew backwards into the building behind him, and Asuka's heart leapt into her throat.

The retaliation didn't stop there, as the Revenant charged down the street for a few hundred meters, before suddenly leaping into the sky with its weapon raised above its head. To Shinji's credit, he managed to get two more shots off with the Positron Rifle before  the Revenant landed directly in the middle of the dust cloud, but neither of them hit.

As Asuka and Rei reached the edge of the now-clearing cloud, they heard the familiar sound of a Pallet Rifle firing. The smoke and dust finally dissipated enough for them to see, and what they saw was a somewhat confusing sight.

Rubble fell to the ground around the white and purple Evangelions, but most of the building remained standing. The Revenant had just barely missed Unit-01 with its sword, but it had cut the Positron Rifle in half and buried itself partway into the ground. Shinji had apparently picked up the Pallet Rifle during his second repositioning, and was now firing point blank at the centre  of the enemy's torso. The rifle rounds, despite being depleted uranium, simply bounced off the armour as the gun wavered around.

And  the Revenant was simply sitting there and letting Unit-01 attack. Asuka growled deep in her throat. It was  _mocking Shinji_ as it almost lazily severed his power cable.

Rei continued to fire past Unit-02 as the red and blue giants ran down the street, succeeding only in chipping off small pieces of its armour. Unit-01 finally dropped the useless weapon and punched at the white beast's head, the only unprotected body part it could reach. But Shinji's sync ratio was too low, and his attacks were easily evaded.

The Revenant lacked eyes and possibly ears, yet it still sensed the approach of the other two Evangelions. It batted aside another feeble punch before slamming a hand around Unit-01's neck and clenching tightly.

“ _Ghhk!”_ Through the neural link, Shinji was clearly feeling the effects of the strangulation as Unit-06 stood up, dragging his Evangelion with it. Its grip shifted from a strangle to a choke as it turned around, wrapping its forearm around Unit-01's neck and presenting its captive to Asuka and Rei.

“Damn you, bastard!” Asuka yelled as she slid to a halt. It was that or run head-first into a purple and green wall. Behind her, Rei refused to let up, peppering any exposed areas of the Revenant, even if the shots came perilously close to Shinji's Evangelion.

“ _Asuka... help!”_ Despite his predicament, Shinji was still trying his best, aiming wild punches over his shoulder as well as slamming Unit-01's elbow into the Revenant's ribs.

“Hang on, Shinji,” Asuka said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone as she activated Unit-02's spike launcher. Even as the targeting system followed her darting eyes, it couldn't find a suitable point behind Unit-01, so she aimed for the arm that had her fellow pilot in a chokehold and fired. The spike crunched into the armour, but stopped when barely even a quarter of it had penetrated. The second and third spikes fared no better.

The Revenant growled in pain, before tightening the hold and almost lifting Unit-01 off its feet. The choking noises from Shinji's comm redoubled even as he gave up his attempts to cause damage to his captor in favour of trying to shift the arm around his Evangelion's throat.

The building behind them exploded.

The recently-completed weapon batteries had finally been brought into play, and they were now hitting  the Revenant in its flank through what was left of the building. But despite the advantage of a surprise attack, they simply didn't have the power to cause any damage.

The Revenant emitted another growl, before bringing its sword up to point at Unit-01's back. Asuka sensed what was going to happen and charged forward, desperate to stop the white demon at any cost.

But she was too slow.

As if to taunt her, the Revenant shoved the blade through Unit-01's stomach right as she was almost within arm's reach. The choking sounds in her ears stopped, replaced by a single scream of pain as the purple Evangelion's arms went limp.

Tears began to leak from Asuka's eyes, dissipating quickly in the LCL, as Unit-06 twisted the blade and brought forth a howl of agony from Shinji. Despite the people in the command centre shouting about forcibly reducing his sync ratio, he still screamed just as loud when the Revenant pulled the blade sideways through Unit-01's torso, partially bisecting it, before contemptuously hurling the limp robot towards Unit-02.

Unit-01 crashed to the ground at the red Evangelion's feet and lay motionless as the lights in its eyes dimmed. A few seconds later, they went out.

_"Jetzt... reichts...,"_ Asuka quietly said, her teeth clenched so hard they were in danger of cracking. Giant red fingers clenched tightly around the axe in Unit-02's hand, the metal warping slightly under its grip. Pure, condensed anger erupted and propelled her Evangelion forward, hurdling its stricken comrade and crossing the remaining distance between her and Unit-06 in a heartbeat. _"Ich werd dich ausnehmen und an deinen eigenen Eingeweiden aufhängen!"_

The locks on Unit-02's jaw shattered as the red Evangelion let loose a metallic screech in sync with its pilot.

* * *

“ _Shinji!”_

All three technicians were shouting at once, but Misato's anguished scream silenced them as she helplessly watched Unit-01 get impaled. She slammed an angry fist down onto the desk next to Maya and tried to fight back the moisture encroaching on her eyes.

“Unit-01 has shut down,” Makoto grimly announced. There was no point reporting the damage; everybody had been watching.

“Tell me he's still okay!” Misato demanded.

“We're getting telemetry from the entry plug. He's still conscious,” Shigeru replied. “Comm link open.”

“Shinji! Are you okay?”

The only response was heavy breathing mixed with low sobs. And then, so quietly they almost missed it, the command staff heard one word.

_“...useless...”_

There was no stopping the tear that slipped down Misato's cheek. Even the sight of Asuka and Unit-02 going into a near berserker rage and shoulder-charging  that damned Revenant through the nearby ruined building could not accomplish such a feat.

“All I can do is sit down here and order them into combat,” Misato finally whispered to herself. “They're my kids.... why can't I do more for them?”

Ritsuko glanced at her friend, noticing that the Commander seemed ready to collapse in on herself, before  grimly turning her attention back to the screen.

* * *

While the redhead was keeping  the target distracted with her attempts to perform a tonsillectomy starting at the base of its neck, Rei backed away slightly as both fighters ducked and weaved around each other as if they were dancers at a rather strange costume ball. Asuka's erratic movements were starting to throw off her ability to predict and aim effectively.

In the privacy of her entry plug, Rei frowned. This enemy seemed to be deliberately goading Asuka into getting angry. It had not even spared a glance towards Unit-00. Even its assault upon Unit-01 seemed specifically designed to upset the Second Child.

The Positron Rifle was destroyed, Pallet Rifles were useless, and the only thing her own weapon had accomplished so far was chipping the Revenant's armour. While Rei was hesitant to leave her partner uncovered, she needed to get something stronger.

“I require a new weapon,” she announced into the comm link.

Only a few seconds passed before she received a response. Misato seemed to be having some difficulty speaking as she said, _“Armoury block... to the east. Two rocket launchers in there... Punish it for me, Rei.”_

“Affirmative,” the First Child replied, the slight emphasis she gave the word telling anybody who knew her just how she felt about the assault on her brother. Her rifle was slung over her back and the new weapons were collected, and as stealthily as Rei could manage in a robot taller than most buildings, she moved to a side street near where the fight was heading towards. The blue Evangelion crouched down and activated the targeting systems in both launchers after carefully balancing them on its shoulders.

The view inside the entry plug changed as both scopes fed their data to Rei's vision, the shifted perspective causing slight confusion in her mind as her own eyes attempted to adapt.

She opened the comm link to Asuka and told the Second Child her plan.

* * *

Asuka heard Rei's call and began to back up as if she were running out of steam.  The Revenant did not appear to have  noticed Unit-00 setting up and continued attacking, driving her back towards an intersection. Several buildings in the city now bore gaping holes from where the opposite end of the double-ended sword had cut through them. The steel and concrete hadn't slowed the weapon one bit.

“Hold him there,” came the order as Rei carefully took aim. Asuka feinted a swipe with her axe, stopping her target in its tracks. Rei had deliberately stayed as close as possible to the intersection to try and avoid a repeat of the previous fight, and her effort paid off. The Revenant didn't see the flanking manoeuvre until it was too late.

Twin trails of smoke filled the street as two of NERV's specialised anti-Angel high explosive warheads were propelled the short distance between Unit-00 and Unit-06. The first rocket slammed into the side of its torso where the explosion almost completely shattered the orange armour, while the second rocket, fired a second later to avoid fratricide, exploited the gap by penetrating into the white flesh before detonating.

Asuka looked on with glee as her enemy stumbled sideways from the sneak attack, and took the opportunity to empty Unit-02's spike launcher at the same  spot as the rockets. With the speed necessary for the attack, a couple of the spikes missed, but enough of them hit. Asuka was sure she saw a hint of the core buried inside Unit-06's body, as well as what she hoped was a crack, and she quickly advanced on the damaged target to try and finish it off.

Too quickly.

For the third time,  the Revenant's throat pulsed as a bolt of energy shot towards Unit-00. While it wasn't as powerful as its previous blasts, it didn't need to be. Rei was too close and couldn't see through the rocket's exhaust trails to know she was being targeted. She had no time to shield herself before she was knocked backwards down the street.

“ _Scheiße!”_

Asuka backed up, but  the Revenant turned back to her and fired once more, directly at her Evangelion's face. Two attacks in such a short time with a damaged core meant that the beam that hit her was underpowered, but it still forced her to try and cover her face at the sudden intense light, and the Revenant took advantage of that.

The giant sword sliced an entire building in half horizontally as it came around in a huge arc, and Asuka let out a shriek of agony as she felt Unit-02's right arm fall away and a stabbing pain in the side of her chest, She grabbed at her own right shoulder as she once again felt the sympathetic feeling of a limb being severed. As she tried to recover from the agony, the blade swung down twice more, easily severing Unit-02's power cable before being cutting again into Unit-02's right torso. The beast was no longer grinning.

And voices were now practically screaming in her ear.

“ _Unit-02's right arm has been severed! Power cable also severed! Five minutes of internal power remaining!”_

“ _Reduce the plug depth! Her sync ratio is too high!”_ That was Ritsuko. _“The sympathetic pain is too much for her, we need to do what we can to suppress it!”_

“ _Affirmative, reducing plug depth! Sync ratio falling, currently at 50%!”_

“ _Asuka, get up! Your cable has been cut, you only have five minutes before shut-down!”_

_'Goddamnit!'_ Asuka thought, nearly paralysed by both fear and pain. Reducing the plug depth only slightly helped. Now it only felt like her entire arm had been stabbed, instead of severed. She attempted to back away but her movements were sluggish now that her sync ratio had sharply dropped and the pain still assaulted her. This wasn't supposed to happen! She wanted to wipe that stupid grin off the demon's face, but not like this!

Despite its lack of eyes,  this bastard was  absolutely glaring at her. She knew what was going to happen now; it was going to finish her off. It had been playing with her,  _provoking_ her into fighting it like she had when she had to face all nine of them at once. But it had only taken one enemy to lay her low this time.

As  the Revenant brought its weapon up to point at her, Asuka's eyes widened as the surface of the sword began to shift into a horribly familiar form. A double pointed weapon, twisting around itself a third of the way down its length and becoming a handle. Her left eye twitched as she recalled the searing pain of the lance as it speared her Evangelion through its eyes, leaving her half-blind and crippled.

As if it too remembered, the Revenant raised the points of the lance to the height of Unit-02's head, forcing Asuka to back away quicker, but the back of the red Evangelion slammed into a building before she could get very far.

“No, I will not go down like this!” growled Asuka, as she finally forced herself to stop holding her own arm and wrapped both hands back around the controls. Unit-02's remaining arm shot up as the shoulder pylon released its knife. Asuka wasn't left-handed, but all pilots were trained to fight with a weapon in both hands in case of injury to their dominant side. Her training did not even have time to get used, however, as the Revenant's left hand shot across to grab her wrist as she swung the knife at its head.

Leaning hard into the building to brace herself, Asuka brought a leg up and tried to kick at its damaged torso, but the pain and her reduced sync ratio meant there was little force behind the kick. She pushed herself harder into the building behind her and brought both legs up, trying to push her attacker away with her feet, but it was like trying to push a mountain.  Its left hand squeezed, and Asuka could feel the bones collapse in her own Evangelion's as a fresh wave of agony shot up her own arm.

“Rei! Shinji! Anybody! I could use some help here!”

In response, Unit-00 showed up behind  the Revenant and brought its rifle to bear again. The rounds punched into the rapidly healing flesh, causing no lasting damage, but there was no time to get another weapon.

Rei did not stop firing, but  the Revenant simply stood there, looking over its shoulder at Unit-00 for a moment before returning its attention to its captive. With a final crushing squeeze, the white beast let go of Unit-02's left arm and instead grabbed it by the neck. It then whirled around and brought the red Evangelion, still kicking, in front of it. Rei was forced to stop shooting.

Outside her cockpit, Asuka could see the Revenant raising its right arm, lance pointed directly at her Evangelion's core.

She closed her eyes and, almost unconsciously, whispered a single word: “Shinji...”

The arm surged forward.

A sound was heard. It was loud and horrifying, yet it was the sound that Asuka had been holding her breath for. The sound stopped the lance mere millimetres before it could penetrate Unit-02's core, its distracted wielder looking away, scanning for the source of the disturbance as the roar continued.

It was a sound that made Asuka forget about her injuries, the pain unnoticed as she turned her head and focused on that beautiful sound. A sound that lifted her spirits and promised that everything would be alright.

It was a sound that put a small but warm smile on Rei's face as she heard it. Her pale hands, previously clutching the controls so tight they left imprints on them, relaxed as the sound surged through her.

It was a sound that shook the earth for kilometres around, and even deep underground in the Geofront, every single staff member swore afterwards that they could feel the vibrations in their feet.

Unit-01 had reactivated, and it was angry.

No, it was _pissed_.

When Asuka whispered Shinji's name just before the lance shot towards her Unit's core, the brilliant eyes of Unit-01 lit up and it opened its mouth and  _roared_ . It was a roar of fury and hatred and defiance. The sound wave demolished several buildings nearby, pieces flying all over the city as the purple beast got to its feet. It glared across the city at  the Revenant , who dropped Asuka and stared back with its eyeless face. Later, Shigeru would argue that if Unit-01 had eye-beams, it would have struck the Revenant dead in an instant simply from the force of that glare.

The Revenant opened its mouth and roared back. Unit-01 roared again, and for a minute the ground shook again as both adversaries tried to shout each other down, neither backing away.

* * *

“Unit-01 has activated!” Makoto shouted in surprise, before his eyes widened. “And... its S2 organ is operational!”

“Its wounds have healed as well,” Maya added. “I'm not detecting any internal damage.”

“What... what's his sync ratio?” Ritsuko finally stammered. The first horrific roar had shaken her badly. The other two Evangelions simply unnerved her sometimes, especially Unit-00, but she was _afraid_ of Unit-01. Ritsuko sometimes thought that Unit-00 was looking at her, but the Evangelion was always deactivated, and as a woman of science she tried to dismiss the feeling due to that fact, but it persisted.

Unit-01, however, induced terror in the scientist. She had watched as it went berserk against the Third and Fourteenth Angels. She had seen it viciously tear its way out of the Twelfth, caked in the blood of its dead enemy, and she knew what had caused those events. The soul of the Evangelion, the spirit of Yui Ikari acting to protect her child. But the woman's soul was apparently gone, just like the original souls in the other two Evangelions.

“Unit-01's sync ratio currently at... this can't be right... 245%,” replied Makoto. “I can't get a solid reading on the pilot though, the psychograph is all over the place.”

“Is Unit-01 berserking again?” asked Maya. She did not want to bear witness to Unit-01 eating another monster. The sight of the Fourteenth Angel's corpse being torn apart had been enough to make the poor girl vomit.

“No, this isn't a berserker state,” answered Shigeru. “I'm not detecting any signs of that. Could... could it be that it's _Shinji_ going berserk and not the Evangelion?”

“He heard Asuka,” Misato sighed in relief. With Shinji seemingly inconsolable after his defeat, everything seemed to have gone downhill. For a brief moment she had thought about just how similar this scenario was to the last time Asuka had called for Shinji.

But this time, he had responded.

Misato clutched at her necklace again as the sound melted the ball of ice in her gut and replaced the look of shock on her face with a faint grin. “Go get 'em, Shinji,” she whispered.

* * *

Their shouting match finally over, Unit-01 and  the R evenant stalked towards each other. As Rei fired the last shot in her weapon's magazine, the two beasts charged at each other as if she had simply pulled the trigger on a starting pistol. Both fighters met, leading with a left punch that rattled the other's head.

Unlike  its fight with Unit-02, which could have almost been a dance, this was most definitely a brawl. The two combatants hit with anything they could connect with. A punch to Unit-01's head was responded to by a kick to  the stomach. Unit-01 attempted to headbutt its opponent, but  the Revenant grabbed its head in both hands and introduced it to a rising knee in the chin. It then attempted to follow up with a roundhouse kick, but was countered by Unit-01 grabbing its leg and swinging it around, throwing it into another building. Unit-01 charged after it with a flying kick that pushed the Revenant through the building and along the street behind it. Getting back to its feet,  the Revenant swung its lance wildly, trying to keep Unit-01 back. The purple Evangelion simply halted and waited for its opponent to cease swinging.

The Revenant raised its lance and stalked forward, intent on burying it in its foe's heart this time. Unit-01 moved at the same time, crouching down and jumping forward, burying its shoulder in  the Revenant's damaged stomach and bringing it to the ground. It then picked up the Revenant by its legs and began to swing it around, completing several circles before letting go. The white Evangelion flew out of the city and landed behind a hill south of Tokyo-3.

And then Unit-01 took a running leap after it, landing on its chest as it began to rain blows down on that which had dared to harm its red counterpart.

At point blank range,  the Revenant could not easily bring the long lance to bear, but it eventually managed to pull its arm back and sink the lance partially into Unit-01's side, forcing it to get up and back away, roaring in pain and holding its torso where the lance had penetrated. The purple Evangelion's eyes narrowed, and a low growl emanated from its mouth as it watched  its enemy get back to its feet. Both combatants were breathing heavily, steam shooting from Unit-01's nostrils. It was only due to the Evangelion's reactivated S2 organ and sheer tenacity that the fight had not ended several minutes ago. The stab wounds closed up, leaving no trace that they had ever occurred, and the two enemies charged at each other once more.

Back in the city, Rei and Asuka were moving to give what support they could to Unit-01. The distance necessitated a new power cable for Unit-00, and Asuka ejected the remains of her own cable for a fresh one, collecting a Pallet Rifle at the same time. She didn't know if she would be able to fire it very well with only one arm and a crushed hand, but she was determined to try.

Unit-00 turned and offered a supporting arm to Unit-02, who waved its remaining hand dismissively. A few steps later the red Evangelion leaned on a nearby building as another wave of pain surged through Asuka's right arm.

“ _Are you alright, Asuka?”_ Rei asked.

“Oh, I'm just fine, First. You should see the other guy,” came the snippy response from Asuka.

“ _I have seen the 'other guy'. Despite our best efforts, it remains alive.”_

“Ugh. You are impossible sometimes, Wondergirl.” The redhead sounded angry, but internally she was cheering and clapping and dancing. Shinji had come to her aid.

As far as she was concerned, this negated the previous time, especially since Shinji had been too mentally destroyed to do anything back then. Now that she knew the truth, she had stopped being angry at him whenever the thought of her death had intruded on her thoughts.

A loud smashing noise interrupted her musing, followed closely by twin roars of pain and anger. The red and blue Evangelions looked at each other for a moment before increasing their pace. As they crested the hill to where  the Revenant and Unit-01 were fighting, they were stopped in their tracks by the scene in front of them.

Both combatants stood close together, unmoving, with their heads almost on each other's shoulders. Unit-01's right arm was sticking through the Revenant's chest, its core held in an upright purple hand. The sight that shocked Asuka and Rei however was that of the lance coming out of Unit-01's back, having been speared directly in the centre of its chest almost up to where the two prongs became the handle.

“Oh no,” Rei whispered. “The entry plug... Shinji...”

“No! Shut up!” Asuka interrupted. The bad feeling she had felt earlier came back in force, making her queasy. The bad thing she was trying to prevent had happened anyway. She pushed past Rei and ran towards Unit-01. “He's the Third Child! _He's invinc-”_

The core detonated, blinding the pilots and bathing the region in brilliant white light.

* * *

The shockwave nearly knocked Ritsuko and Misato from their feet, so unexpected was the explosion. Misato caught herself on Maya's chair and yelled, “Shinji, Asuka, Rei! Respond!”

“We're getting nothing from the surface ma'am! The topside systems are down! I'm trying to bring them back online!” reported Makoto, fingers flying over his keyboard as he attempted to restart the communication and visual instrumentation.

“Hurry, we need to know if the pilots are okay! Aoba, get medical teams standing by for all three pilots!” Misato ordered. The ball of ice in her stomach had returned with a vengeance when she had seen Unit-01 impaled. As if reading her mind, Ritsuko spoke up.

“From the angle of the lance, it appears to have gone right through the entry plug.”

That comment added more frost to Misato's stomach, and she whirled around, fear evident on her face. “But did Shinji survive?! Tell me he survived, Ritsuko!”

“I'm sorry Commander, I can't be sure just yet. Maya,” Ritsuko turned to Maya. “Get the MAGI to run an analysis on the last visual we have of Unit-01. Have them work out precisely where the lance intersects the entry plug. We might as well do _something_ while we're waiting.”

On the main view above them, the static of unresponsive cameras was replaced with a still image of Unit-01 and  the Revenant locked together in what almost seemed like an embrace. The screen zoomed in, and the picture was overlaid with a diagram showing the precise location of the entry plug. A white silhouette representing the pilot was placed in the pilot seat, then a thick red line representing the lance was drawn through the plug. 

Straight through the silhouette's torso.

* * *

_'Well, this is going to be a profitable day for construction companies,'_ was the first thought that crossed Asuka's mind as she awoke from unconsciousness and pulled Unit-02's head out of a building. Then her brain finally woke up properly. She gasped and stumbled her way back to the top of the hill the explosion had thrown her from, and stared at the carnage. Approximately a square kilometre of valley near Tokyo-3 had been scythed clean. Small guttering fires dotted the landscape, but it was what was at the epicentre that froze the redhead's blood.

Unit-01 was barely standing; leaning over was more like it. The blast had knocked Unit-01 backwards, and the prongs of the lance had dug deeply into the ground behind it. Asuka's mouth dropped open as she took in the horrific sight. What little frontal armour remained was cracked and scorched black, and all that was left of the right arm was a shoulder, a quarter of the upper arm, and a jagged humerus.

There was no sign of the Revenant. It had either been completely vaporised in the blast as its body unwittingly shielded its enemy, or had simply turned into LCL and was already back in the ocean. The once-purple Evangelion's left arm twitched and vainly struggled with the hilt of the weapon shoved through its torso, trying to free itself from the lance. As she watched, the twitching stopped, and the arm fell lifelessly to her side as Unit-01's eyes started flickering unsteadily.

The terrified pilot finally got her Evangelion's legs moving and limped as fast as she could towards the stricken Unit, ignoring the metal debris that had buried itself in the back of Unit-02's left knee and was now making its presence known.

As she reached out for the hilt of the lance, Unit-01's head jerkily turned to face her as the flickering in its eyes slowed. Her Evangelion's giant red hand closed around the broken shaft of the lance, but she was interrupted in her rescue attempt when her comm unit blinked to life and a familiar purple-haired woman tried to break through the static.

“ _-suka, do-...-uch that! Le-...-in!”_

“What...what did you say?” Asuka was tired and injured. The day had taken a great toll on her. “I have to get him out of his-” she began, but was cut off by Ritsuko chiming in as the static finally cleared.

“ _That lance is plugging the wound. It may be the only thing keeping Shinji alive. If you remove it, Shinji will bleed to death in seconds. The best thing you can do right now is leave it in until the medical team can arrive.”_

Bleed to death. The words chilled Asuka to the bone. Any hope that Shinji had survived the Revenant's final attack unscathed vanished in an instant. Rei had been right.

“Are you sure he's even still alive?! Misato, please tell me Shinji is alive!” Ever since she had crested the hill and seen Unit-01 in its stricken state, Asuka had pushed aside any cares about what people might think of how she acted towards Shinji. Now was most definitely not a time for her to dance around something not even she was completely sure of.

“ _We can't be completely sure until we can see inside his plug, but it's not looking good. See if you can raise him on your comm. We're not even getting static from him; I'm amazed we were able to get through to you in time.”_

“I... I'll try, but his Eva... it's in terrible shape...” Asuka closed the comm channel to NERV, and her finger hesitated above the button that would connect her to Shinji's Evangelion. Would he still be alive? Could she withstand the image of Shinji floating lifelessly in the entry plug, those sad blue eyes of his forever closed?

The giant blackened and fractured visage of Unit-01 stared back at Asuka as her Evangelion stood stock still, hand grasping the lance shaft, four green eyes locking onto two white eyes. Asuka idly noted that this was the first time she had ever seen something that could be called a plaintive look in a giant robot's eyes. Normally they looked to be in a state of near-constant anger, but now she felt as if Unit-01 was... sad.

Asuka was so fixated on those eyes, and her mind still so gridlocked by fear and doubt, that she nearly jumped out of her seat when Unit-01's remaining arm slowly raised and gently cupped Unit-02's cheek. Just like she had done to Shinji so long ago, when she woke up on that beach unable to breathe.

The sensation of a thumb gently brushing her cheek brought her back to the present, and her finger jammed down on the comm switch so hard it almost broke. Unit-01's arm fell back down as a distorted comm window appeared in front of Asuka's face. She could just barely make out an arm flopping to the side, mirroring the crippled Evangelion. Joy and horror fought for control of her face as the window cleared up and she could finally see Unit-01's pilot.

The prong had been driven through the middle of the pilot's chair. The design of the chair meant that Shinji's legs had been crushed by his own seat, nearly severing them at the knees. It continued on to pierce his stomach and the back of the seat before exiting the plug. His head lolled to one side, with only the headrest stopping him from slipping off the seat entirely, and his face looked like he had received a nasty sunburn. If it wasn't for the utility pole-sized lance shoved through him Shinji would have simply looked like he was taking a nap in his entry plug.

Joy finally won out as Asuka saw the boy's eyes flicker. “Shinji!” she cried, standing up in her seat and nearly pressing her face to the window as if it would make her easier to hear. Unit-01's eyes slowly closed as Shinji opened his. Turning his head toward the comm window, Asuka felt her eyes begin to tear up as Shinji's gaze met hers.

  
He blinked slowly, as if waking up from a nap. _“Hey Asuka,”_ he moaned. _“Are you okay?”_ He did not seem to notice his condition, and merely shifted slightly in his seat.

Asuka's head drooped and her long red hair fell over her face as she tried to hide her tears from Shinji. “Y-you idiot, stop moving around. You're hurt. Stay still until the medics get here.”

“ _I'm... I feel fine... but what about you? Your Eva is... missing an arm. What happened?”_

Asuka hung her head and chuckled humourlessly. “That bastard got me with a cheap shot. It hurts, but my sync's been dropped. I'll be fine.”

Shinji raised his left hand to his forehead, clenching his eyes shut. _“Urgh, it feels like I've been... put through a shredder.”_ He took a couple of breaths and opened his eyes again. _“I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you.”_

Her face hardened as she almost snapped off an order to stop apologising, but her mouth jammed as she realised something. Shinji was _alive_ to say those words. He could do nothing but apologise for the next hour and she would only feel joy as the words washed over her.

“ _Shinji!”_ Rei's comm window opened next to Shinji's, as she realised that the two of them had established contact. Relief, tinged with worry at his predicament, was evident on the normally stoic girl's face. _“I-I am grateful to see that you are alive.”_

Shinji smiled, but whatever he was going to say to reassure his sister was cut off as he coughed, flecks of blood flying out of his mouth to float in the LCL around the boy's face.

Rei hurriedly checked her map, scanning for the medical team en route to them. Several large trucks had left the Geofront and were now on their way through the city. _“Please remain still, brother. You have been gravely injured. The medical team will be here shortly. I will contact NERV and inform them of our status.”_

Asuka sighed and leaned back in her couch as the mention of medical aid reminded the redhead of her own injuries. “I've already told him that, Wondergirl.” She grabbed at her own right arm as a dull wave of pain hit her again, and missed the upset look that appeared on Shinji's face as he watched the girl squirm in her seat.

“ _Asuka, are... you alright?”_

She rolled her eyes. Of course he wouldn't notice his own injuries, choosing instead to focus on the fact that she was hurt. Typical Shinji. “I'll be fine, dummy. Think of yourself for once.”

“ _But... your Eva... your arm's...off...”_

“So is yours! _And_ you have a lance in your stomach!” Asuka retorted, leaning forward and glaring at Shinji, who slowly raised his hands to lay them on the lance prong as he stared down at it.

Or rather, _hand_.

Asuka recoiled back into her seat and she tried to stifle a shriek as Shinji's right arm came into view of the comm window, its sleeve dangling loosely just above the elbow. Her shock grew as she remembered the state of his Evangelion, and noticed just how bad the 'sunburn' on his face really was. Shinji's sync ratio must have been immensely high for the damage to his Evangelion to be transferred so exactly.

Asuka could barely even stand to look at the terrible sight. It seemed as if no part of Shinji's body was undamaged. His legs were crushed, burns likely covered the entire front of his body, he was  _missing an arm,_ and from the sheer size of the lance, she realised with mounting horror that his spine had undoubtedly been severed. Which was probably the reason he couldn't feel anything wrong with his legs.

The horrifically-injured boy seemed to be fading fast, especially after noticing the missing limb. His arm dropped back down and his head began to loll to the side.

“Shinji! You can't fall asleep now! Wake up!” Asuka cried, hoping and praying that he was merely tired, and not... _dead_. Several tense seconds passed before she let out a sigh of relief as Shinji painfully raised his head again. Asuka felt a bit of guilt crawl into her at the tired expression on his face. He was extremely exhausted and in a lot of pain, that was clearly evident, but if he nodded off again would he ever wake up? She had to keep the Third Child lucid to reassure herself that Shinji wouldn't... die.

It didn't help that Shinji quietly said, _“Heh, guess... you won't get to teach... me those German swear words... after all...”_

“Shut up! Don't talk like that!” Asuka snapped. What she wanted most of all was to be in his entry plug so she could hold Shinji, to give him some physical reassurance that he'd be alright. She settled for kneeling Unit-02 down next to Unit-01 and using its crippled hand to cradle the giant purple head. To her relief, Shinji seemed to feel the gesture, as he smiled wanly at her through the comm link.

The convoy of NERV vehicles finally pulled up near the three Evangelions. Since Unit-02 only had one hand, Rei had to hold Unit-01 steady while Asuka _very_ carefully tugged on the lance to free it from the ground underneath the purple Evangelion. Shinji still hissed in agony, prompting an apology from Asuka.

“ _Scheiße_! Sorry, Shinji!”

“ _And... you keep telling me not to... apologise.”_

Asuka chose not to comment beyond a feeble attempt at a laugh to disguise the sob that threatened to burst forth. The boy's head was lolling to the side again, and his eyes were almost closed. He was running out of time, but they could only go so fast.

Gently lowering Unit-01 sideways to the ground so the medical personnel could access the plug, the female pilots then stepped back and finally shut down their Evangelions. Asuka sighed in relief as the majority of the pain left her, but the tired girl's body finally decided it had had enough; she simply didn't have the energy to get out of the plug on her own.

Since the majority of the recently-arrived team was working on safely cutting Shinji out of his entry plug, Rei entered Unit-02's plug and slung Asuka's arm around her neck before helping her down to ground level. Asuka was too tired to complain about the treatment, and simply mumbled incoherently as Rei lowered her gently to the ground in the shadow of Unit-02. She so badly wanted to get up and be there to see Shinji as he came out of the entry plug, to be there for him, but the ground was just... so... comfortable right now...

Asuka fell asleep leaning against her  Evangelion's massive shoulder.

Rei sat next to her and observed the commotion around Unit-01. While she too was desperate to see her brother,  she knew that she would just get in the way. The faster that Shinji was extracted and delivered to the medical ward, the better. She stubbornly refused to think of a certain fatal word.

After around ten minutes of waiting, Rei watched a large tank filled with reddish fluid get delivered to the work crew surrounding the entry plug. The entire pilot seat was slowly pulled out, the lance having been _very_ carefully cut through after sedating Shinji, and was lowered into the tank as a breathing apparatus was fitted to Shinji's head. The tank was sealed and loaded onto a large truck that sped off towards the Geofront and the best medical facility in the world.

Rei noticed that as soon as Shinji was taken out of the entry plug, something about Unit-01 changed. She had thought that the Evangelion was already powered down, but only when the connection to its pilot was definitively broken did she... _feel_ that Unit-01 had deactivated.

It was an odd sensation, but the First Child was in no state to question it.

A trio of field medics made their way over to the two female pilots, and Asuka was grudgingly awoken and checked out, before being loaded onto a stretcher. Rei was also examined, and she was guided into the same ambulance where she sat on a bench next to Asuka's head.

She fell asleep a few minutes later as exhaustion set in, and the two teenage girls dreamed fitfully of the same brown-haired boy.


	25. Chapter 25

“...lost his right arm just above the elbow. It turned into LCL inside his plugsuit, so we can't even attempt to reattach it,” Ritsuko said, dully reading off the list of injuries Shinji had suffered. While she wasn't a medical doctor, she could at least translate for the benefit of the less scientifically-minded Misato. The issue of repairs to Unit-01 had been skipped over, as the woman knew that they were less important at this point in time, and the Commander wanted the _important_ news first.

Besides, there was something strange about Unit-01's S2 Organ that she needed to take a closer look at before reporting on it.

“Both legs will have to be amputated,” Ritsuko continued. “The trauma was simply too severe to reattach them.”

Misato held a hand up, while her gaze remained locked on the glass on the desk in front of her. “Stop, please. I don't need to hear any more of that,” she replied. “Just... give me something besides bad news.”

The scientist frowned. Misato had retreated to her office the moment she could. That had been ten hours ago. Her superior officer and friend was now unashamedly getting drunk, thanks to a bottle the former Sub-Commander had left in one of the desk drawers.

On the one hand, it was completely against regulations. On the other... Ritsuko wished there was a second bottle. The people involved with rescuing Shinji from Unit-01 would probably be coping the same way. She had seen the extent of the boy's injuries through the cameras in the operating theatre, and there had been several close calls already. Three cigarettes had been sacrificed in rapid succession before she had worked up the nerve to enter Misato's office.

“Alright, better news,” she finally said. “With the equipment we have, Shinji could stay alive indefinitely.”

“Hooked up to machines?” Misato darkly asked. “That's not living.”

“You didn't let me finish,” Ritsuko said with an irritated look. “What I'm saying is that it's going to take a while to repair all the damage he sustained. We might have some of the best people in the world, and we're actually flying in specialists as well, but Shinji's not going to be out of surgery for at least a few days. Even then, well... I'm just glad we finished the healing tank.”

The purple-haired woman looked up at that, hope clear in her eyes. “You finally have one that you'd be willing to put my boy in?”

Ritsuko nodded. “After extensive testing of the compound, and modification of some existing hardware, I'm confident that we have something suitable for Shinji. After his organs have been replaced, and his spine reattached, he'll be placed in the tank to accelerate recovery time.”

“Yes... organs.” Misato brought her hands up to her face in a pose similar to her predecessor, but more thoughtful-looking. “How are you replacing those, since the originals were so... violently removed?”

As it turned out, all of Shinji's vital organs had been sampled during one of his many, _many_ visits to the hospital the previous year. They had been cloned and put on ice, right next to a similar set belonging to Asuka after they had been flown in from Germany. NERV did not want to risk either pilot being out of action. It was easier to simply have their own spares ready to use instead of hoping that other transplants would not be rejected.

With NERV being so far underground, it had been easy to create a cold storage room that could last a long time without power. Unfortunately, by the time enough of NERV had been restored, those organs had begun to deteriorate.

Since Ritsuko believed that it was best to have something and not need it, rather than to need it and not have it, she had discreetly ordered replacement clones to be created with fresh cells after Shinji's disastrous time in Unit-01 all those months ago. Enough of the old cloned organs had survived to be sampled, but it was a bad idea to copy a copy.

The problem was, in order to create the organs quickly, they had had to utilise the same trick that was used to rapidly grow replacement limbs for the Evangelions. As a result, they had a lower life expectancy than if they had been allowed to grow naturally.

“You're not exactly filling me with hope here, Rits,” Misato warned.

“Don't worry, the organs will still last a long while; several years at least,” Ritsuko replied. “More than enough time to create permanent replacements.”

The Commander stared at the bottle on the desk next to her, before putting the lid back on and placing it back where she had found it. She began to slowly sip what was left in her glass.

“How soon can I see him?” Misato finally asked.

Ritsuko tapped on her pad. “Two days, at most. By then, most of the critical surgeries will be done.”

“Very well.” Misato sighed heavily as she stood up from her desk, swaying slightly after sitting down for so long. “I'm going to go see how the rest of my kids are doing.”

* * *

_It was almost laughable, how easily the Mass Production Evangelions were going down. Even with her cable severed and running on backup power, Asuka was tearing them apart. SEELE would be wanting their money back if this was all that the next generation of Evangelions could accomplish. She couldn't lose, because her mother was with her. She said as much to whoever happened to be listening in the command centre._

_One of their swords was suddenly flying through the air directly at her. Asuka reflexively put up her AT-Field to stop the projectile, which impacted against the barrier and stuck there like a knife in a wall._

_And then it began to morph._

“ _The Lance of Longinus?!”_

_Unit-02 only had seconds of power left, but she had to strengthen her AT-Field. The transformed weapon was forcing its way in!_

_The AT-Field quickly gave out as her power did, and the lance continued on unerringly towards Unit-02._

_Until a purple arm came out of nowhere and snatched the weapon mere meters from its two left eyes._

_Even as her Evangelion fell lifelessly to the ground, Asuka let a smile grow on her face. She didn't even bother trying to hide it as she keyed her comm unit._

“ _You're late, Third! I've already taken them out!”_

_In hindsight, perhaps she shouldn't have said that; because right as she did, the white harpies got up, and two of them immediately charged at Unit-01. Asuka couldn't see much due to the position of her Evangelion's head, but she saw the lance swing through the air impossibly fast, and the two white giants were suddenly cut in half. Surprisingly, that didn't stop them as they flapped their wings and continued on their trajectory._

_There was no finesse to the way the Mass Production Evangelions began to swarm over Unit-01. Asuka could hear Shinji growling through the comm link as he knocked them all away, slashing and stabbing as best as he could, but they just kept coming back._

_Damnit, why did she have to run out of power?! She should be fighting too!_

“ _Mama, please help!” she whispered urgently._

_But there was no response._

_The purple arm holding the lance was the first limb to be separated from the rest of Unit-01. The howl of agony echoed inside Asuka's head even as Shinji took out his Progressive Knife and stabbed the perpetrator in the core._

“ _Please, Mama! Shinji needs us!”_

_But there was no response._

_No matter how much she begged and pleaded, Unit-02 remained silent. Shinji seemed to be screaming non-stop now, as the harpies began to tear his Evangelion's armour away and shred the flesh underneath._

_And then one of them shoved a lance through Unit-01's chest._

“ _SHINJI!!”_

Asuka shot bolt upright in bed, gasping heavily. Her hair and clothing were damp from sweat, and she ran a hand over her face to pull away the strands that had stuck there.

“Just a dream,” she muttered, allowing herself to fall back onto the hard pillow on her bed.

_'Wait...'_ Asuka frowned. _**'Hard**_ _pillow? Bed? An unfamiliar ceiling, too.'_

Oh, right.

She was in NERV's hospital, not at home. As she sat back up again, Asuka could feel bandages on her right arm and around her chest. A gentle poke in the side of her ribs produced only a mild ache, and the same went for her arm.

Despite apparently being in the medical ward for a while, she could still smell LCL in the air. Her hair had evidently been washed, or at least thoroughly rinsed, as there was no stain on the pillow. In fact, as Asuka sniffed about she realised that the scent was coming from the bandages themselves. She pulled the hospital-issue shirt up and saw that the bandages were there to hold a strange orange pad against her skin.

Before she could investigate further, the door to her room hissed open. Asuka hurriedly dropped her shirt back down, thinking it was a doctor or nurse, but the newcomer turned out to be the First Child.

“You are awake,” Rei quietly remarked.

“No, I'm just sleep-talking and doing a damn good job of it,” Asuka replied with a roll of her eyes.

Her fellow pilot blinked, then smiled a little as she approached the Second Child's bed. “You have gone from consciousness to sarcasm in an impressively short time. I was not out of the room for very long.”

“Huh? Why were you in here in the first place?”

In lieu of a verbal response, Rei pointed to the other side of the room, where a second bed sat.

“...Oh,” Asuka lamely replied. “Wait, then where's Shin...” Something burst through the door that led to her brain, and waved an important piece of information in front of her mind's eye. “...ji...” Her face fell.

Rei's expression swiftly copied that of the redhead. “...Shinji is still in surgery,” she quietly replied. “It has now been approximately fourteen hours since the battle, according to the receptionist I queried about his state.”

Asuka swore softly, and then asked, “But.. he's going to be alright, isn't he?”

“I... I don't know...” Rei's shoulders began to shake. “The spear... tore out many of his organs and severed his spine.” Her voice was turning almost manic. “I could tell just by looking at where it penetrated him. He shouldn't have survived that! How is it possible that he's still alive?” Red, teary eyes widened and pale skin turned even paler as Rei clutched at her head. “Wait, why am I saying that? I don't want him to die!”

It took only a couple more seconds of babble before Asuka reached out and dragged the now-crying girl onto her bed and into a hug. The two girls latched on tightly to each other, and  Asuka allowed her own tears to come forth as  Rei cried into her shoulder.  Wondergirl was now the only thing holding her back from rushing out of the room to the operating theatre to discover Shinji's current condition. She both desperately wanted to know, yet at the same time dreaded the answer. Once again, fear was paralysing her. The hug was just as much for her benefit as it was Rei's.

But while she now had something physical to act as an anchor, Asuka couldn't prevent her own mind from rampant speculation, running through all the things that had happened with Shinji and their impact on his future. Even if NERV could offer prosthetics, would he still be able to pilot? Would it even be possible to repair his spine to a point where he could walk again? What about organ replacement?

Just because he didn't want to feel useless, Shinji would now likely be crippled for the rest of his life, if he didn't d-

Asuka finally managed to stop herself before _that_ word could rear its ugly head.

Or maybe it was the third pair of arms that wrapped around the two girls that brought the speculation to a thankful halt.

“Hey, girls,” Misato murmured into their ears. Asuka wrinkled her nose; she could smell alcohol on the woman's breath. “Hope you don't mind if I join in.”

“If you have good news, you can join in until your arms fall off,” replied Asuka.

The Commander of NERV told the Children what she had just learned. To Asuka's silent relief, Rei migrated to Misato's lap as the woman spoke to them. It was still strange to see the First Child so... vulnerable. The previous year, a frown would have been her biggest reaction to her brother's plight. Now, she was hugging their foster mother like a young child, despite the cautiously optimistic information they had just been given. Misato certainly didn't seem to mind, either.

But if she started bouncing Rei on her knee, Asuka was going to have something to say.

As the redhead shifted slightly on the bed, the sensation of the bandages against her skin reminded her of what she had seen just before Rei had returned to the room, and she asked Misato about them.

“It's something our development team has been working on for a while,” Misato explained. “Bandages soaked in a compound made of LCL and... uh...” She pursed her lips in thought before continuing. “...some things with too many syllables in their names for me to remember them. The compound helps the body to regrow skin, nerves, and muscles.”

“Well tell them to work on the smell,” Asuka remarked. “It'll be easier for people to deal with if they don't have to deal with the stench of LCL.”

“I'll let Rits know,” Misato dryly replied. “Anyway, you have those patches on because your sync ratio was high enough for your arm and torso to actually take some serious damage from what the Revenant did to Unit-02. You were actually cut up quite a bit there, with a lot of bruising around the wounds.”

Asuka lightly grasped her right arm, remembering the phantom pain of it getting lopped off. But that pain would be nothing compared to what Shinji had endured.

“So will Shinji be getting wrapped up like a mummy in this stuff when his surgery's over?” she asked, hopeful that she would be able to see the Third Child soon.

The Commander of NERV hated to dash those hopes, but it couldn't be helped. “No, his injuries are too severe for that, not to mention the surgery he has to go through. Shinji will need to be fully immersed in a more concentrated form of the compound. Even with it, he'll be in there for several more days to recover from surgery.”

An involuntary shiver rolled through Asuka's body. She hadn't just asked in order to know when she would be able to talk to Shinji. Their closeness at night kept the nightmares at bay for both of them, but if she absolutely had to, Asuka was willing to suffer through them for a night or two. Her dreams were bad, but they hadn't ruined her yet. Shinji, on the other hand...

He heard the entirety of humanity screaming inside his head.

Asuka cautiously voiced her concern over Shinji's dreams, but held back what she had recently learned about them.

Misato's face darkened, and she glanced down at the top of Rei's head. “I wish there was something I could do about that, Asuka, but the surgeons have enough to deal with without needing to work around somebody in the way.” She turned a helpless look on the redhead. “I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do except hope that he won't have any dreams while sedated.”

“If he is sufficiently sedated, Shinji will not have any dreams,” said Rei. “Or at the very least, he will not remember them when he wakes up.”

The First Child yawned as she finished speaking, which caused Asuka to yawn as well. Misato took that as a cue to get up and carry the girl to her own bed.

“Get some more rest, you two,” the woman said as she tucked Rei in. “I suppose I should do the same. I've been strung out ever since we went on alert, and I've been running on nerves and coffee all day.”

The two girls bid their foster mother goodnight as the door closed. Asuka then rolled over and stared at the wall. She didn't know if Rei had stated a fact, or was merely giving hope to her, but she grabbed onto it anyway.

Asuka steeled herself for the onslaught of memories that lurked in the recesses of her mind.

* * *

A loud growl of frustration filled the office, but Maya simply looked calmly across the desk at its source. Ritsuko clutched her head and growled again, softer this time but much more drawn out. She had been trying to work on the current problem for two days now, and was still no closer to a solution.

“Maya...” she finally said as she brought her forehead down to meet the desk. “Why is it that I know more than everybody else in the world _combined_ about the Evangelions, but they still persist in giving me headaches?!”

The mousy lieutenant sighed, but otherwise remained silent. She stood up while the Sub-Commander's gaze was focused on the wood of her desk and silently moved to stand behind the woman.

“I mean, it feels like every time something major happens, another weird thing pops up,” Ritsuko continued. “I swear, it's like those damn robots conspire with each other to make up new things just to annnngh...”

The scientist's words petered out as Maya's hands went to work on her shoulders, and she let out a sigh of relief as the tension that had been building up over the last hour began to flow out of her body.

“You need to take a break, senpai,” Maya murmured.

“Can't,” Ritsuko muttered, too focused on the sensation of melting under the younger woman's hands to form a real response, much less reprimand her for _still_ using that word. “Too much work.”

“Have you had a day off _at all_ since Third Impact? Because I'm pretty sure you haven't. Not to mention that it's been three days since the attack and you haven't come home at all. You've just been sleeping in here, haven't you?”

All Maya got was an unintelligible mumble in response. After a few more minutes, she gently pulled Ritsuko away from the desk and got the woman to sit where she had been, and then took her place at the computer.

“What are you doing?” Ritsuko asked as Maya adjusted the chair and keyboard to her slightly smaller stature.

“Taking over for you while you have a break.” At those words, the scientist attempted to get up, but the lieutenant's glare froze her to the spot. “You are going to stay there, or I'm going to call a doctor in to make you take time off.”

Ritsuko could see that Maya was not bluffing, and she slowly sank back down into the chair. “Fine,” she groused. “But I still need to tell you what I was looking for.”

“And what was it, senpai?” inquired Maya with a raised eyebrow, her fingers hovering in the air above the keyboard.

“The S2 organ in Unit-01. I've been speculating as to why the readings differ when compared to those from the last time it was active.” Ritsuko tapped her chin as she remembered the data she had been pulled away from. “More specifically, they change just after we lost contact with the surface, when the Revenant's core exploded. But there's no damage to the S2 Organ, according to the tech crews. It may be related to why Unit-01 isn't regenerating as quickly as it should be.”

Maya made a thoughtful humming noise, and her fingers descended onto the keyboard.

Whereas Ritsuko had been struggling to find an answer for close to an hour, Maya took half that time to come up with a probable cause.

“I believe I have an answer, senpai,” she said, missing the almost inaudible sigh from the Sub-Commander. She spun the monitor around. “Take a look.”

Ritsuko dragged her chair towards the desk and leaned in close to the screen. As she read, her eyes slowly widened in amazement. She knew that Maya was incredibly intelligent -one of the biggest reasons the lieutenant was essentially the only backup for herself when it came to the MAGI- but Ritsuko hadn't expected her to be able to solve the problem so quickly. Tired as she was, her eyes still flew across the screen as she absorbed the information.

“Impressive, Maya,” she finally said with respect clear in her gaze. “You came to the correct conclusion when I couldn't.”

Maya blushed, and waved a hand in dismissal. “It was just because you're tired, senpai. I'm sure if you were fully rested this would have been child's play to you.”

Ritsuko smiled, and chose not to press the point for the time being. “Alright, now that we have something concrete to report, I need to tell the Commander.”

The blush faded. “No.” Maya sternly said. “ _You_ are going to go home and sleep.  _I_ will report to Commander Katsuragi.”

That look was back in the young woman's eyes, and Ritsuko wisely stopped the feeble protests about being the lieutenant's superior officer from escaping her mouth. She made do with a sigh instead. “Why can't I say no to you, Maya? Okay, do the report. Just remember that the Commander requires simpler communication than we scientists are accustomed to employing.” The last sentence was said with a smirk.

Maya nodded, and Ritsuko got up to leave. As she was about to open the door, arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind. She smiled and turned around in the embrace to return it, and planted a gentle kiss on the giver's lips before leaving the office.

* * *

Asuka stared resolutely at the door leading into the operating theatre. Ever since she had been allowed to leave her hospital room, the redhead had spent the vast majority of the last two days within the vicinity of the theatre. She had witnessed several shift changes as exhausted surgeons left and were replaced. Every single person leaving looked like they had been awake for far longer than they really had been.

But at least it was quiet in there. Loud voices would imply that something was going terribly wrong.

Recognising that her foster daughter was a bundle of nerves and would react unfavourably to any attempt to remove her from the Geofront, Misato had commandeered an empty room for Asuka to sleep in. The woman's only stipulation had been that Asuka _had_ to sleep there, but the medical personnel had been ordered to wake her up if Shinji was coming out of surgery.

Rei came and sat with Asuka as often as she could, and Misato delegated as much of her work as she could to do the same. She didn't want to risk missing Shinji. Even if it was only for a moment, Asuka wanted to see him before he became untouchable for several days again.

Maybe that would stop the shivers that occasionally wracked her body.

It was now three forty-five in the afternoon. Misato was next to Asuka, and Rei was sitting across from them, having coming straight to NERV from school.  Rei was recounting the reactions of their school friends upon hearing of Shinji's condition.

Apparently Toji had begged Rei to see if he could reclaim his spot as the Fourth Child, and had been crestfallen when told that Unit-01 would only accept Shinji. It had taken a long hug from Hikari to bring the jock back to some semblance of normality.

Throughout the one-sided conversation, Asuka remained stone-faced, eyes fixated on the operating theatre door. She was therefore the first one to notice as it opened once more, but Asuka paid it no mind as she merely assumed that it was another shift change.

Until the man removed his surgical mask as he came to a stop in front of Misato.

“Commander Katsuragi?”

“What is it?” Misato asked, standing to meet the surgeon. “You have news about Shinji?”

He nodded. “Yes ma'am. He's stable now, and will soon be transferred to the tank.”

Before the man could report any further, Asuka shot to her feet. Misato beat her to the punch, however, as she said, “We would like to see him before he gets transferred. Is that possible?”

“We were ordered to move him there the moment he was done...” The surgeon trailed off, noticing the look on Asuka's face; both pleading and demanding. “...But we can give you a minute or two,” he finished. After asking them to wait, he ducked back into the surgical theatre. A different surgeon emerged a moment later, pushing a gurney.

“Shinji!”

Asuka was first to reach him, rushing to the head of the gurney to look down at the sleeping face of the Third Child. She reached out to him with one hand, until the blanket covering Shinji froze it in the air. Or rather, what the shape of the blanket revealed.

It was one thing to be told of Shinji's injuries, and to just witness them through a video screen. It was quite another to see the blanket dip down to meet the gurney where it shouldn't. Once again, Asuka cursed herself for not being a better pilot, but she welcomed the wave of relief she felt as his serene-looking expression calmed her insides.

Her hand finally came down on Shinji's remaining arm and squeezed gently, as Rei stepped up on the other side of the gurney to echo the gesture on his right shoulder.

“Will he be sedated the entire time he's in the tank?” Misato inquired.

“No,” the surgeon replied. “We'll be giving him one more shot of anaesthetic, which should wear off sometime tomorrow.”

“In that case, I want a familiar face nearby at all times. He's going to wake up confused and trapped in a much too confining glass tube.”

Rei and Asuka looked at each other, then at Misato's serious face and nodded together. Neither of them liked the idea of Shinji returning to consciousness and becoming hysterical, possibly re-opening his wounds.

Misato returned the nod. “I expected as much from you two. Rei, I'll let the school know not to expect you for the next day or so.”

“I am sure they are used to it by now,” Rei replied with a weak smile.

There was a polite cough from the surgeon. “I'm sorry to interrupt, but we need to move him now.”

The three females stepped aside, and fell in behind the man as he began to push the gurney. A short while later, they entered a room that had been marked as a restricted area. Rei was the last one through the door, and she froze upon noticing something disturbingly familiar.

A metal-and-glass tube sat in the middle of the room. While it still looked like the one that had once been used for the First Child's memory uploads, it had undergone some changes.

It now rested horizontally, held off the ground by a bulky metal platform with several thick pipes leading into it. The 'cap' of the tube had been modified, the pipes removed in favour of the ones underneath, and a metal rack added to the inside. It now somewhat resembled a filing cabinet drawer, an image that was strengthened when Shinji was carefully loaded onto the shelf.

The changes could not stop Rei's hands from clenching as she remembered the time she had spent in that tube. Misato stepped up next to her after kissing her foster son on the forehead, and together they watched an oxygen mask get fitted over Shinji's head before being connected to the cap.

“I can see that you hate this thing, Rei,” Misato quietly said to the girl. “But it's being used for a better purpose now.”

Rei stared at the tube as the cap closed. A machine whirred to life as a substance that looked similar to LCL, but more viscous and less opaque, was pumped into the tube. A sheet was draped over the majority of the machinery to preserve Shinji's modesty, and only then did the First Child relax.

Only to jump in surprise when a voice behind her said, “I finally found you, Commander!”

She turned around to see a slightly out of breath Lieutenant Ibuki, who saluted once Misato's attention was turned to her.

“I have information for you concerning Unit-01, ma'am,” Maya reported. “But if you're busy, I can just put it on your desk.”

“You look like you've been hunting for me for a while,” Misato remarked. “Might as well tell me now.”

“Yes, ma'am.” The lieutenant cleared her throat and began her report. “Sub-Commander Akagi and I have been attempting to analyse an anomaly with Unit-01's S2 Organ that appeared shortly after the Fourth Revenant died.”  
  
“Wait, there's a problem?” Misato cut in.

“Well, it's more like we may have found a limitation to Super Solenoid power, Commander.” Maya shifted nervously. “It took some time, but... the Sub-Commander found that the S2 Organ was drained. Significantly.”

Rei sensed that the lieutenant was lying a bit. Not about Unit-01, she had been telling the truth there, but about who made the discovery. She was curious as to the why behind the lie, but remained silent.

“Unit-01's S2 Organ is now sitting at approximately 92% of its original capacity,” Maya continued. “It's steadily increasing, but wound regeneration has been slowed down.”

Misato scratched her head. “Wait, aren't Super Solenoids supposed to be infinite sources of power? How can _that_ get drained?”

“In light of this discovery, Sub-Commander Akagi has worked out that... it's more like infinite _generation_ , ma'am.” Maya looked down at her report. “It can produce a limitless amount, but there's a finite capacity as well as a limited charge rate.”

The Commander of NERV still looked puzzled, and Maya was stumbling over her words to properly explain. Rei came up with an analogy to aid the young woman. “It is like a bathtub connected to the ocean. The water source is essentially infinite, but it can only come out of the tap so fast, and the tub itself cannot hold an infinite amount.”

“Yes, exactly!” Maya said, smiling widely. “Thank you, Ayanami.”

“Okay then,” Misato said. “So something drained Unit-01's power faster than an alien power supply could replenish it. Do you happen to know what that something was?”

“There is... one possible cause,” the lieutenant nervously said. Her eyes shifted rapidly to the tube in the middle of the room and back to Misato, so quick that only Rei noticed.

“Was it damaged by the explosion? Leaking or something, but repaired itself?” Misato asked.

“No, ma'am.” Maya was now hiding her mouth behind the report in her hands, as if wishing to stop speaking.

“It involves Shinji, does it not?” Rei softly asked. Maya nodded, and squeezed her eyes shut. Rei reached out and took the report, briefly scanning the page before her eyes came to a halt at the point that the lieutenant didn't want to reveal.

And Rei saw why.

She stared at the tank that held her recovering brother. “The Angels all possessed an S2 Organ,” she slowly intoned. “With it they could turn aside conventional human weaponry as if it were nothing and defend themselves against that which could oppose them. Unit-01 was made from Lilith, and its Organ was stolen from an Adam-derived creature and...  _forced_ into compatibility.”

The First Child turned to Misato, who seemed to be beginning to understand. “Shinji's sync ratio was well over one hundred percent, at a point where it no longer matters what the exact number was. His wounds were brutal; not only did he suffer the injuries to his own body, but also every single injury that Unit-01 sustained.”

Her red eyes began to fill with tears, but they remained focused on Misato's face. “How much energy would it take to forcibly keep somebody alive? To sustain somebody who was seconds away from _death_?”

* * *

The jean-clad leg twitched up and down at a steady rate. It had been going non-stop for the last several hours at approximately two beats per second, but the red-headed owner of the leg didn't seem to notice the passage of time. Only the fact that the tube in front of her contained a sleeping Shinji kept her from bleeding off more of her nervous tension by tapping on the glass. 

She had heard everything said behind her about Unit-01 and its pilot. With her back to the conversation, she had been free with her tears as she heard about just what it had taken to keep the ever-unlucky boy alive.

There had not been a dry eye in the room. Maya had gently led Rei away, and Misato had pulled Asuka into the tightest hug she had ever received from her guardian and foster mother. The embrace had resulted in both of them receiving wet patches on their clothing, but care about such a minor thing was absent.

The technicians had long since departed after making final checks on the healing tank and its apparatus, and now Asuka was alone in the room. Once again, Misato had been able to easily read the subtleties in the Second Child's posture that meant she was not going to be moved from the room any time soon.

As Asuka tried to put the recent news out of her head, her brain instead decided to latch onto the Evangelions themselves.

While there had been too much classified data about the bio-mechanical creations to be able to get a degree focused on them, she had still made full use of her pilot security clearance level to devour as much information as she could during her spare time. Anything that could be used to better understand and operate the machines could only make her a better pilot.

If only she had learned about her mother being the soul of Unit-02 sooner.

At a single request from Asuka earlier that year, Misato had expanded the girl's security clearance, mostly so that she could learn everything about the details behind her mother's attempt at a Contact Experiment. Kyoko had told her in Instrumentality about how her hubris had been her downfall, but Asuka wanted to know more.

It had taken a long time, plus several icily polite questions directed at Ritsuko Akagi, to satisfy Asuka that there had been no overt foul play beyond that of Unit-02 stealing most of her mother's soul. With everything that had happened in NERV, she wouldn't have put it past the former Commander to... _arrange_ _things_ so that her mother would have been tricked into the situation.

At the thought of Gendo Ikari, Asuka frowned down at Shinji's quiescent face. Would it be possible to convince the boy to abandon his family name? If word got out that he was the son of the man who helped to nearly bring about the extinction of humanity, it was almost guaranteed that there would be at least _one_ person determined to punish the son for the sins of the father. Certainly something to bring up with Shinji once he was awake.

A small sound came from the inside of the tube. Asuka ignored it, thinking it was her imagination. It was too much of a coincidence to think that Shinji was about to wake up just as she thought about it. Besides, it hadn't been enough time for the anaesthetic to wear off. Asuka pillowed her head on her arms, leaning forward onto the glass of the tank, in preparation for a short nap.

A minute later, she heard the same sound again. Asuka peered over her folded arms, and the cause of the sound brought a frown to her face. The tube had not been filled to the brim, and there was a small air pocket. Shinji's head was slowly shifting from side to side, causing small ripples throughout the surface of the liquid.

Asuka let out her breath in a low curse. The anaesthetic apparently _was_ starting to wear off, and it was taking away the only protection Shinji had against his dreams as it left his body.

Should she try and find one of the technicians? They would be able to determine if something was wrong with the tank, but the thought of Shinji suddenly waking up with nobody to greet him froze her to the chair.

“Shinji? Shinji, can you hear me?” the redhead called out in a soothing tone, putting her face close to the glass. “It's okay, I'm right here.”

The boy didn't seem to hear her, either due to the tube and the liquid, or because of his dreams. Asuka moved to the cap of the tube, and sighed in relief as she found what she was looking for. She pressed the clearly marked 'SPEAKER' button and spoke again.

“Shinji, whatever you're seeing, it's not real,” Asuka said. “You're safe now. Follow the sound of my voice. Please... wake up.”

Her right hand twitched, feeling as though it was almost demanding to curl around Shinji's own hand. She continued to calmly speak, raising her voice slightly as she sat back down in the chair.

“Just forget about anything else. I'm right here for you, I'll keep you safe, so follow my voice. Come back to me, please... Shinji...”

Shinji's eyes opened as his head shot up... and rebounded off the glass above him. The liquid slowed him down, but the shock of headbutting something was enough to return his head to a horizontal position.

“Huh, second time that's happened now...” Shinji muttered as he rubbed his forehead, his voice muffled slightly by the oxygen mask, but still coming through the speaker.

“Shinji!” Asuka was thankful for the colour of the liquid in the tank. It would do well at covering the redness of her face until it faded. Seeing Shinji struggle to wake up had almost brought tears to her eyes again.

“What?” The boy twisted his head about a bit, before spotting the excited girl on the other side of the glass. “Oh, hello Asuka.”

Resisting the urge to try and pull the boy out of the tank just to settle the twitch in her hand, Asuka smiled at him and asked, “So what was that about me not being able to teach you any more German?”

* * *

“To be fair, we haven't exactly had a surplus of critically injured people to test this on,” Ritsuko remarked as she checked the readings of the healing tank. “All our tests with the substance were small scale. I knew that it could get rid of toxins, but I didn't expect it to target a sedative as well.”

Ritsuko, Misato and Rei hadn't taken long to return to the room upon hearing of Shinji's early awakening. While Misato had immediately moved to the tank to see Shinji, Rei had hesitated for a moment before her concern for her brother overrode her dislike of the tube.

“There was one person early on in the project that deliberately injured himself to give us something to test the bandages on,” Ritsuko continued. “But nobody wanted to risk grave injury just to test the tank.”

“Wait, you said you had extensively tested this stuff,” Misato replied, staring suspiciously at the chief scientist.

“What I said was that the _compound_ had been tested,” Ritsuko replied. “Other people have been put in the tank, but that was to ensure that it functioned and was comfortable for the patient. Shinji is the very first person to actually be placed inside it for the purpose of full-body healing.”

Misato tapped her fingers on her folded arms for a few seconds. Finally, she turned back to the tank and asked, “Shinji, how are you feeling?”

“Um, I know that... I lost my arm,” Shinji began, twisting his head to look at his right shoulder. “But I can't feel my legs either.” Despite his effort to look down at his body, the size of the tube prevented him from being able to sit up enough to do so.

“That's because... the doctors had to amputate them...” Asuka sadly replied. Even behind the red liquid, she saw Shinji's face pale noticeably.

“O-oh...”

“I'm sorry, Shinji,” Ritsuko apologised, stepping up to the tank. “Your legs were crushed by your own pilot chair. We couldn't save them.”

“...I see,” the Third Child dully said, before turning his head to stare at nothing. Ritsuko took that as a cue to move away and pretend to be occupied with her PDA.

“What's wrong?” Asuka inquired, shifting to the other side of the tube to look into Shinji's eyes. “NERV fixed up Jock Stooge with prosthetics, they can do the same for you too.” She levelled a serious look at the scientist and pointedly added, “Isn't that right?”

Ritsuko did not bother trying to match the stare, turning away with a nervous cough. “Of course. NERV takes care of its people.” Somehow, she managed to say that with a straight face. “We can quickly organise a basic set of prosthetic legs for Shinji, but the arm is going to be more complicated and there will be some more surgery involved.”

“Will I still be able to pilot?” Shinji asked, still staring at Asuka.

Now the Sub-Commander was being stared at from three different angles, as all three female members of the Katsuragi family waited for her answer. Ritsuko stifled the urge to nervously adjust her collar.

“It will take time to learn to use the prosthetics,” she finally said. “Especially since you'll have an arm _and_ two legs being replaced. If it was one or the other, I would be optimistic about you being at least nominally ready for the next attack. But if another Revenant appears in the next month, you will not be combat-capable.”

Only Asuka saw Shinji's reaction to the news. A twitch of his facial features, followed by a hardening of his eyes. She didn't bother to look away this time as she said, “Well now that you're done giving him more bad news, how about you go and start working on those prosthetics?”

A shake of the head from Misato stopped Ritsuko from responding angrily to the girl. Instead, the scientist sighed loudly and left the room.  Misato turned a despairing eye on  Asuka for this latest remark to the Sub-Commander before also heading out of the room.

Asuka knew she was being insubordinate, but right now the only person she gave a damn about about was stuck in a tube.

“Brother, there is nothing to worry about,” Rei softly said, and Shinji slowly turned his head to face her. “When the next Revenant arrives, Asuka and I shall face it and win.” She exhaled and looked away for a second, before focusing on him again. “I do not know how to say this diplomatically. If you attempt to join us, we will both be worried about you. Our own performance will be impaired.”

Asuka nodded. “Wondergirl's right, Shinji. _I know_ you don't want to sit around while we fight. _I know_ you want to help. That's clear to all of us. But you've already got one handicap in an Eva with a low sync ratio. How are you going to pilot _now?_ ”

Shinji stared for a long time at all that remained of his right arm, before closing his eyes and saying, “I'll find a way.”

The two girls looked at each other. What neither female pilot wanted to outright admit was that Shinji's presence in the fight had been quite a liability in the beginning. Having to practically fight against his own controls to get anything done meant that the Revenant had seen him as an easy mark. its sudden change of target to the clear weak link had tipped the scales of the battle until Unit-01 had reactivated. And if every Revenant was better than the last...

Rei stood up and sadly said, “Shinji, all we want is for you to get better. Please focus on that, first.” She silently left the room.

Silence reigned in the room for several long minutes, before Shinji mumbled, “Sorry...”

In response, Asuka blew air past her pursed lips before replying, “You've still got nothing to apologise for, Shinji. Except, I guess, for that insane way you fought.” She gave the boy a light glare. “Seriously, what possessed you to go fully on the offensive? It was like Unit-01 was going berserk again?”

Shinji shifted nervously inside the tank. “It was... because I heard you, Asuka.”

Colour began to fill the Second Child's cheeks again. “You... you mean when I was calling out to you when I was about to get impaled?”

With a slow nod, Shinji replied, “When I got stabbed, the pain interrupted my synchronisation. It was hard enough maintaining my sync ratio without that pain, so I just... gave up. 'What's the point?' I thought. All I had managed to do was get myself taken out. But then... you called for me.”

Blue locked onto blue as Shinji stared directly at Asuka. “You whispered my name... and it sounded like you were saying goodbye. I heard that, and I knew I couldn't let it happen. My inaction was about to get you killed again.” His body began to shake, and his voice became ragged. “I would rather _die_ than let that happen a second time.”

“Y-you... idiot!” Asuka angrily stammered out. “You almost d-died anyway! The only reason you're here now is because of that S2 organ Unit-01 has!”

“...Oh...”

“'Oh'? You almost get yourself killed to the point that it took alien technology to keep you alive, and all you have to say is 'oh'?!” It took a great amount of effort for Asuka to not slam her fists on the glass tank in frustration. “Damnit, do you know how freaking _scared_ I was when I saw your Eva after the explosion?!”

She clenched her eyes shut as moisture tried to leak out. “Shinji... I was so afraid that you were dead... that I couldn't even bring myself to open the comm link until your Eva reached out to mine.”

The horrific sight of an impaled purple Evangelion flashed in front of her mind's eye, its eyes flickering as its remaining hand feebly tried to pull the spear out. The almost-sad look on the robot's face as she tried to overcome her fear of what had happened to Shinji.

The thought that he was going to die before she could muster up the courage to admit her most deeply held secret.

For three days she had been forced to sit around and wait. When she had been outside the operating room, Asuka had twice heard alarming sounds and panicked shouts, even through the doors. After the second time, she had badgered Misato relentlessly to find out what had happened.

As it turned out, Shinji's heart had stopped twice.

She had almost lost her chance _three times._

“Asuka... I-”

“Quiet, Third!” The redhead brought her hands up to her face, rubbing at her wet eyes with the heels of her hands. The tears refused to stop. “Goddamnit, why is this making me cry? Why do I care so much about you? _Why the hell do I love you?!”_

Shinji stared up at Asuka, eyes and mouth wide open in shock.

Asuka stared back down at Shinji, hands clamped over her mouth in a too-late attempt to stifle the words she had just uttered, with a face that suddenly felt like she was back in the volcano. Her legs twitched, ready to propel her out of the room, out of the Geofront, out of the _country_.

Her secret was a secret no longer. In her attempt to alleviate her fear about not being able to confess her true feelings, said feelings had broken out of containment and bum-rushed the guards in their escape out of her mouth.

Shinji licked his lips and swallowed nervously. He then spent the next few seconds opening and closing his mouth as he attempted to speak, but all he accomplished was making himself look like a goldfish; an image that wasn't helped by the liquid surrounding him.

Asuka's hands dragged up her face, moving from her mouth to cover her eyes as well, and she collapsed back into her chair. She too, was at a loss for words. What was there to say now? Maybe if they both remained silent, _something_ would happen to distract them. A ridiculously long shot, but it was the only thing Asuka could possibly think of.

Hell, she would even accept another Revenant attack... maybe...

“Um... A-A-Asuka...?”

Ah, the Third Child had managed to reboot his brain. So much for an eternity of silence. Though she was sorely tempted to stay quiet, after a few seconds had passed, Asuka mumbled through her hands, “What, Shinji?”

Silence returned. She opened her fingers just enough to peer through them at the tank, and saw Shinji shift his remaining hand to rub at his head while his brows furrowed. Eventually, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh that fogged his breathing mask.

“Did... do you mean what you just said?” the boy quietly asked.

Anger flashed in Asuka's eyes. Her first thought was, _'Is he calling me a liar?'_ But then the rational part of her brain rapidly decided to give its opinion. _'He's spent a decade believing he was unloved. Is it so strange for him to be sceptical that somebody would suddenly claim what I just did? I have to say something, and it can't be that I didn't mean it. What would that do to somebody who has been emotionally stomped into the ground already?'_

That thought wasn't enough to stop her mouth opening and letting out words that might not have been  _ wrong _ , but still probably not very expected. “What are you implying, Third?”

Shinji visibly flinched away from Asuka. The act froze her blood and shattered her anger. For the first time in over a month, he was  _ scared _ of her.

“Shinji.”

One word, and the boy flinched again, despite the calming tone. Asuka shifted on her chair and placed both hands on the tank directly above him. “Shinji, look at me. Please.”

The Third Child's head slowly jerked around like a malfunctioning animatronic robot. His eyes, when Asuka could finally see them, were filled with fear. She felt sick, knowing that she had caused such an old reaction to resurface so suddenly.

“Shinji, I...” Asuka paused, then wondered  _ why _ she paused. Her biggest secret was already out. What more could happen? How could things get any worse? She kept her eyes locked onto his, to try and prove that no part of her was lying, as she said, “It's... true. I've... been  _ wanting _ to tell you for a while now, but I couldn't bring myself to say it.” 

Her face had cooled down only slightly. Now it merely felt like she had been standing too close to a supernova. Asuka refused to let that stop her, as she recounted the horror she had felt at almost missing out on being able to confess three times. Her words may have accidentally slipped out a few minutes ago, but they were genuine.

Shinji's eyes flickered across her face, scanning for any sign of deceit, but finding none in her open features. “I... um...” he stammered, struggling to reply.

This was the part that Asuka had been dreading. One of the biggest reasons she had been too... afraid to confess. Did Shinji feel the same way about her, despite how many bridges had been burned the previous year? Or maybe he simply didn't like her that way, and had just wanted to be her friend. Her heart didn't know whether to prepare itself for suborbital flight, or to ready clean-up crews to sweep up after it shattered. Perhaps that confusion was why it was now hammering at her ribcage.

Shinji's breathing mask fogged up again as he took a deep breath and inhaled. A large dose of courage had evidently been in that lungful of air. He opened his mouth and spoke clearly, his words bereft of hesitation or stuttering.

“Asuka, I so  _ desperately _ want to accept that, but I can't. Not yet, at least.”

Asuka's heart began pounding harder. The clean-up crews were now on standby, but were keeping their distance. “W-why not?” she cautiously asked.

“Because...” Shinji squeezed his eyes shut, and continued with a grimace. “There's... something I have to tell you first. Something that will probably change how you feel about me.”

Two minutes later, Asuka stumbled out of the room in a daze, almost sending the person on the other side of the door flying.

* * *

After departing the room, Rei Ayanami seated herself on the closest bench to the door, content to patiently wait and give the Second Child a bit more time with Shinji before her usual reminder to rest.

There were not many soundproofed rooms in the medical ward of NERV HQ, and the room containing the healing tank was not one of them. Thus, there could be no mistaking the shouts that Rei heard. Her first instinct was to charge back in and attempt to defuse the situation, but then she perceived what was being said.

There was anger in Asuka's voice, just as there had been last year when she had constantly harassed Shinji, but this time it was simply because she was worried. Rei had learned that people would sometimes use anger as a way to try and disguise their true feelings, to cover up fear or other unwanted emotions.

It certainly seemed appropriate that somebody like Asuka would resort to such a defense. At least this time, she sounded like she was angry _for_ Shinji, rather than _at_ him.

The voice softened to a point where Rei could no longer hear it, and she found herself unconsciously standing up and moving closer to the door. There was another shout, and her eyes widened in astonishment. For a long time, she stood there at the door, her mind churning over what she had heard and attempting to make sense of it.

Rei loved her brother, and she was fairly certain that Misato did too. Why was the Second Child so uncertain about her love for Shinji? They were a family. Was a family not supposed to love each other?

But then she thought of another boy and girl: Toji Suzuhara and Hikari Horaki. She had heard it said several times that the two were 'in love' with each other. Since she hadn't quite understood the difference between 'love' and 'in love', some research had soon followed. It didn't take long for her to discover that romance was what was being implied.

Was this situation between Asuka and Shinji similar? There were certainly parallels between the relationship of her fellow pilots and that of Hikari and Toji, such as stubborn denial and anger upon hearing rumours.

With an almost audible snap, things came together inside the First Child's head. Asuka loved Shinji in a _romantic_ way, and had been attempting to hide it. Now Rei finally understood what Misato had meant back when the woman had thought that Shinji had 'confessed' to Asuka. Now she knew why the German girl had been getting so close to-

The door in front of her slid open, and a streak of red flew through it and into her, almost knocking Rei over. She staggered backwards, and recovered her balance for a few seconds until the backs of her legs collided with the bench she had been sitting on. Rei looked up as Asuka swore in German, before switching back to Japanese.

“Oh, didn't see you there,” Asuka distractedly said, before then immediately setting off down the corridor. Out of sheer confusion and curiosity, Rei followed her.

The redhead came to a stop at the elevator and pounded at the call button. She stepped in the moment it arrived, and Rei stared at her, unsure if her fellow pilot was seeking privacy. Asuka sighed and beckoned to her, using her other hand to keep the doors open.

When the two girls reached the lobby, Asuka went to the corner of the room, the furthest point from the reception desk, and flung herself into the couch so hard she almost inadvertently bounced back to her feet. Rei sat down to the right of her in a much more sedate manner as the Second Child leaned forward and clutched her head, groaning long and loudly.

“Was there a disagreement?” Rei quietly asked.

Asuka tilted her head slightly to glare balefully at her with one eye. The look quickly faded, though, and she sighed. “You said there were four events that led to Shinji initiating Third Impact: Misato's death, my death, and two private events.”

Rei nodded silently, and she continued. “Well I already know that 'my'-' Asuka made exaggerated finger quotes. “-rejection of him was the third event.” The other girl nodded again, and her arms dropped into her lap. “...I  think I just found out what the other private event was...”

Before the First Child could admit that she already knew, Asuka curled her hands into fists in front of her face and growled, “The Third... _used_ me. I was stuck in a coma and he... sat there and jacked himself right off! He turned me into a goddamn sex fantasy!”

Rei lowered her gaze to the floor. Though she was certainly naïve about many things, she understood that Asuka felt incredibly violated by the act. But the girl still needed to try and defend her brother.

“Did Shinji tell you how he felt afterwards?” she inquired.

“Ew! Gross!” Asuka screwed up her face in disgust. “I don't _need_ to know! He-”

Rei interrupted before the redhead could go on a tirade. “He felt like he was the worst person to ever exist.”

“He... what?”

“When Shinji... finished...” Rei dully explained. “He believed that he had just defiled you. That act is what caused him to run away into the depths of the Geofront and hide.”

Asuka lifted her head up and stared sightlessly across the room. “Wait... _that_ was why he didn't offer any resistance when somebody held a gun to his head?!” she asked incredulously.

“That, and his unwilling execution of the final Angel.”

Asuka slapped a palm against her forehead. “Damn. I'd forgotten about that.” The hand slowly slipped down her face. “What did he say... 'If you're going to give up, then I will too'. Something like that, anyway. He was breaking down fast and turned to me to try and keep him up, but I couldn't do anything while in a coma. He gave up, tried something to feel better, and just made things worse.” The redhead let out a single loud and humourless laugh. “That's the Third Child, alright.”

“...Do you hate my brother for doing such a thing?” the First Child hesitantly asked.

“What? Well...” Asuka scratched her cheek, then let out a hissing sigh. “...No. I already forgave him for not being... _able_ to help me. I can't very well do that, and then condemn him for something that's well... minor in comparison.”

“Then you should tell him that.”

There was silence in the room for a few seconds, then Rei raised an eyebrow as Asuka uttered a German word, clearly an expletive she did not know.

“I'm a goddamn idiot!” the Second Child exclaimed. At the other girl's confused stare, she clarified. “After he admitted to... _that,_ I just stormed out of the room. And I had just accidentally told him I lo-” Her jaw snapped shut. “Never you mind!”

“I heard your... confession,” Rei admitted. “It was rather difficult not to.”

When the pale girl refused to wilt under her glare, Asuka growled through clenched teeth. “Tell anybody and you die.”

“I have no intention of revealing any new details about your relationship without your consent.”

“ _Good,”_ Asuka replied threateningly. “Anyway, after that, he asked if I was telling the truth. I said I did, but then he said that he couldn't accept that because of... well...”

“Because he believed that what he said would make your feelings for him change,” Rei finished.

“Yeah.” Asuka growled again. “Me running off after hearing that? I'd bet my Eva that he now thinks I _do_ hate him.”

“Go back to him, _now_ , and allay his fears.”

Ignoring the wait for the elevator, the return trip to the healing tank room took half as long as their departure.

* * *

The sound of the door hissing open was impossibly loud in Asuka's ears. She turned her head to glance at Rei, standing behind her, but the girl's cool stare was no comfort. With a deep breath, she slowly stepped into the room.

One step inside was enough to see that things looked just as Asuka had feared. Shinji was staring blankly up at the ceiling, apparently not having heard the door open and close. The tank's speaker had not been deactivated, so it was clear that he was simply too busy beating himself up to pay any attention to things outside his own head. Even as Asuka drew closer to the tank, there was no response from inside until she reached out and gently tapped a fingernail against the glass.

For the second time that day, Shinji's head impacted against the glass tube, before flinching upon seeing who was standing nearby. His body began to tremble.

It wasn't until Asuka caught a glimpse of herself reflected in the glass and looked down that she realised why Shinji was reacting in such a way. The redhead's entire body was in a stance that radiated standoffishness. She slowly unfolded her arms and rubbed at her face to remove the scowl that had broken out without her realising, before moving to the other side of the tube and sitting down in the chair.

“I've thought about what you did, Shinji,” Asuka began, keeping her tone low. “Part of me wants to reach in there and punch you in the face.” The boy's eyes widened, but she continued in the same voice. “But that's the part that thinks all boys are perverts. Heh, I guess you're the only one who isn't, really.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but Asuka swiftly interrupted him. “I've made up my mind.”

Shinji blinked. “What... have you decided?” he asked, clearly afraid of the answer.

“Considering the circumstances of that day, I won't hold a grudge against you for it. It's in the past, nobody was hurt, it doesn't _matter._ As far as I'm concerned, it didn't even happen.” Asuka leaned forward. “What I want from you is to believe the same thing. Understand?”

“You... want me to pretend nothing happened?” Shinji cautiously asked. “I-I don't know if I'm capable. That's been one of my most persistent hated memories ever since I woke up on the beach.”

“Try,” Asuka simply said. “Put it behind you, otherwise it'll just stick to you.” She had been trying to do the same thing for the last few months, and with Shinji's proximity at night aiding in keeping away the nightmares when she couldn't do it herself, her attempts had been relatively successful. “Don't look back at bad memories, Shinji. That's when they catch up.”

Shinji closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as her words washed over him, then opened them again and blinked several times in rapid succession. “Alright,” he said. “I'll try.” He said a few more syllables, but his voice was too soft for the speaker to pick it up and Asuka was unable to lip read it.

An uneasy silence descended for a few minutes, and surprisingly, it was Shinji who broke it. “So... um... d-does this mean that... uh... I mean, if we're pretending it didn't happen... um...” He was looking everywhere but at Asuka, who was now hiding a grin behind her hand.

She let Shinji's babbling go on a little longer, just to see if he would be able to say it, but then decided to take pity on the poor boy. “Are you asking what I said earlier is still true?” At his embarrassed nod, she said, “Well if _that_ didn't happen, then nothing's changed.”

“So... you do... l-love me then?”

Asuka found it strange that while she had kept skirting around the word since blurting it out before, he could say it almost normally. She nodded in response to Shinji's question.

One side of the boy's mouth twitched upwards, then the other followed suit. Asuka was enraptured by the slowly growing smile, and one started to form on her own face.

“If that's true, then...” Shinji began. Even through the liquid, Asuka could see redness begin to dust his cheeks. “I have something to tell you. Something I've been keeping locked away for too long.”

And now her heart was beating like a jackhammer once more.

“Asuka... I...”

Her chest felt like it was about to give way.

“I...”

Was that a rib beginning to crack?

“I love you too.”


	26. Chapter 26

“Alright, I can see that you're kind of upset, but is handcuffing me to the chair really necessary?”

Silence.

“And shackling my legs seems a bit like overkill.”

Silence.

“Unless... are you about to punish me-”

“Knock it off,” Misato ordered, and the man tied to the chair in front of her went quiet.

The smug look remained on his face, however.

“I'm just saying, none of this is needed now,” Kaji finally said, raising his hands as much as he could to show off the metal restraints. They weren't the high-security restraints used to keep dangerous prisoners secured, but they sufficed to keep him in his seat. “My job is done.”

“The last time I let you out of my sight,” Misato replied, stabbing a finger at the man, “you raided the MAGI for information then completely disappeared from our radar.”

“Well, to be fair, I raided the MAGI because _you_ ordered me to ensure that nothing of SEELE would remain a threat to the kids.” Kaji attempted a nonchalant shrug. “And I have. Speaking of which... How's Shinji?”

Misato didn't appreciate the sudden topic change, but the agent's now-serious expression convinced her to answer him. “He's...  alive . We're going to give him the best prosthetics possible, but that'll take time.”

“No,” Kaji said with a shake of his head. “I mean, how is he coping?”

“Oh. Well, Shinji was rather devastated when he found out about his legs. He was worried that he wouldn't be ready in time for the next attack.” Misato chuckled sadly. “Despite hating them, he still wants to jump right back in just because he wants to help. Anyway, Asuka's keeping him company right now. Hopefully she can keep him, if not happy, then at least content.”

“I see. And what about yourself? Ritsuko told me about that bottle in the drawer before she left me here.”

Misato's eyes darted to the drawer in question. She had been somewhat tempted to bring the alcohol back out again, but these days even the Commander of NERV could not be seen to be getting drunk.

“It's... tough,” she admitted. “All I could do was sit and watch as the boy I've come to see as my own son get horribly injured in his first real fight since last year. I ended up falling asleep in this chair last night. Take one guess what I dreamed about.” Kaji was silent, but the downward slant of the corners of his mouth told Misato that the man understood. She cradled her head in her hands. “The first thing I did when I woke up was to go down to the medical wing and reassure myself that Shinji was still alive.”

She heard a clatter of metal and looked up to see Kaji reaching a hand out to her. He grimaced, before clenching his fist and viciously yanking his arm upwards. The wooden armrest of the chair held for only a few seconds before cracking and giving way. Kaji shook his arm, and the splintered wood slipped out of the other end of the handcuffs.

Misato raised an eyebrow as the man placed his free hand on the desk in front of her, before giving him a soft grin and accepting his hand in hers. “Going to ruin the rest of that chair as well, or do you want me to fetch the key?” she asked as he gently squeezed her hand.

“What, for these old things?” Kaji said with a smirk. “Nah, just give me a paper clip and a couple of minutes.”

Even as Misato carefully watched him work, she was still unable to see how he managed to undo both the cuffs and the shackles so quickly. “Are you absolutely sure that SEELE is no longer relevant?” she asked.

Kaji placed the mangled paper clip on the desk and replied, “At this point, if anyone popped up claiming to be SEELE, it would be purely name only. Any data that they had has either been destroyed or delivered to NERV for use as evidence.”

“Good.” The woman reached out for his hand and took it into hers again. “If only the other threat to my kids was able to be dealt with as easily.”

The phone on her desk rang, and the two of them quickly shifted back into their seats as Misato answered it. She frowned as she listened to her secretary pass on a report of a sighting at the beach. The flow of people returning from Instrumentality had slowed to one or two every couple of weeks.

Some families had begun to hold funerals for their missing members.

Every time a report reached her about returning NERV personnel, Misato always held her breath as she waited to see or hear the name of one person she did not want to come back. Fortunately, Gendo Ikari was apparently still content to stay in his own perfect little world.

But she was still surprised to hear who the people on beach patrol had discovered. And also rather pleased. Misato ended the call and looked over the desk at Kaji, who raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Well? Who is it?” he asked.

“Two people came back. They're not sure who the other person is yet”–a smile grew on Misato's face–“but they recognised Kozo Fuyutsuki.”

As she got up to head out of her office, Kaji said, “Now I'm curious about who the second person is.”

Misato stopped at the door and glanced sidelong at him. “Well after you've given NERV those cuffs back, why don't you go satisfy your curiosity?”

“Oh? Not worried about me disappearing yet again?”

Turning around to face him fully, Misato replied, “You can try, but the MAGI are now keeping you firmly within their sights, and you're confined to the Geofront until I say otherwise.” She grinned mirthlessly. “Not to mention, if you run off again, I won't be able to do this to you...”

Her hand lashed out and grabbed the front of the man's shirt, yanking him out of the chair and into a forceful kiss that lasted for ten gloriously agonising seconds.

“...I see,” Kaji said as soon as he got his breath back. “Well, that's a pretty good incentive, Katsuragi.”

“Only 'pretty good'?”

The hapless man gulped at the dangerous look in the Commander's eyes.

* * *

“Greetings, Major,” the old man said, lowering the newspaper he had just been reading, as he looked up at the person who had just entered his room. “Or rather... Commander. I had a feeling you would come down to meet me as soon as you heard of my return, ma'am.”

Misato covered her face with a hand and groaned. “That sounds so wrong coming from you, sir-I mean... um...”

Kozo Fuyutsuki chuckled. “Is it because I'm old, or because I used to be your superior?”

“Superior. _Definitely_ that one.”

He leaned back and placed his hands in his lap. “And I understand that Doctor Akagi now holds my old job.”

“That's right... uh...” Misato sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “Are you intending to return to work?”

“Commander, I'm afraid that even NERV would not be able to pay me enough to stay here.” Kozo sadly shook his head. “I'm sure you can understand why.”

The woman let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I was afraid I'd have to find another office. The Gloomy Lair of Ikari was... _unfortunately_ destroyed along with the rest of the pyramid.” She grinned as Fuyutsuki's face told her exactly how much of a loss that was. “I ended up borrowing yours since it was the nicest looking one.”

“Well you have my blessing to do what you like with it,” Kozo replied.

“To be honest, I'm not going to change a thing. You had the right idea for an office, after all.”

The old man gave a slight nod and smile. “Thank you for your praise of my decoration ability, Commander.”

They chatted for a little while longer, until a doctor came in and performed a final checkup on the former Sub-Commander of NERV. When the doctor left, Misato said, “As thanks for your years of service, tell me what you have planned next and NERV will help however it can. Retirement? I'll make sure you have more than enough money to live on.”

“I would be lying if I said that I hadn't thought about retiring,” Kozo replied with a low laugh. “But I think I would rather keep myself busy for just a little while longer.”

“Why not go back to being a professor then?” Misato suggested.

“My field is metaphysical biology. I'd rather stay away from Eva-related subjects.”

“Then how about just biology, or something similar?”

As Kozo hummed to himself in thought at the idea, Misato continued. “Teach science at a high school? It might be a bit... below you, but you'll be away from Evangelion stuff while still being well within your element.”

This time, the laugh was a bit louder. “Has anybody ever told you that you could be a career counsellor?” Kozo asked. “Alright, I believe I could be a high school teacher. It'll certainly be a relaxing job by comparison, and I've been told my disapproving look is rather fearsome. I'm sure I could keep younger students in line.”

“Okay,” Misato replied with a nod. “I'll see if the schools here in Tokyo-3 still has any openings. Rei did mention hearing that her own school was a bit short-staffed.”

There was a knock at the door, and Misato turned around to see a wide-eyed Kaji leaning on the door frame.

“...You're not going to believe who the other person is...” he said, apparently unable to believe what his own eyes had just seen.

“Ah yes, that was rather a surprise to me too, especially considering their circumstances,” Kozo idly noted. He made a shooing motion with his right hand. “You should go and see for yourself, Commander.”

Her curiosity clearly getting the better of her, Misato just barely held back a 'Yes sir!' as she left the room. The moment she was out of earshot, Kaji looked at the old man and said, “Today's going to be interesting.”

“That it will be, Agent Kaji,” Kozo replied, picking his newspaper back up. “That it will be.”

* * *

Asuka loved Shinji.

And he loved her right back. It took her several minutes of silence just to get her heart rate under control. Shinji didn't seem to mind, possibly because he was having a similar reaction to his confession.

And then Asuka began to speak of how she had come to admire, respect, and eventually love him, almost as if she were also trying to justify it to herself. It had been a slowly growing infatuation over the course of the Angel War. Her role as his caretaker after Third Impact had simply helped the redhead see how much she cared for him.

While she had admittedly not had a good first impression when she first laid eyes on the Third Child, back on the _Over the Rainbow_ , his actions had soon changed her mind. Together they had beaten the Sixth Angel, when alone she might not have been able to. And their synchronisation training had had an unintended, but now not unwanted, side effect.

After looking back at her memories of that time, Asuka put her hand on the glass tube and apologised profusely to Shinji for taking out her frustrations on him during the synchronisation training. He responded by placing his own hand on the inside of the glass directly under hers. While it wasn't the actual physical contact that her hand still twitched for, it helped.

The mood was ruined a little by Shinji's attempt to apologise for his lack of ability during that week, but Asuka waved it off, and claimed that the garish uniforms they had to wear had been a much worse thing to deal with. Something which her sync partner readily agreed with.

Since  _that week_ had come up, Shinji admitted that he hadn't been able to find out about 'the Jericho thing' yet. Asuka  replied that she would help him look it up once he was out of the tank.

While it had been a slow process for her to realise her true feelings, she was surprised at what Shinji ended up revealing in his side of the story.

“Well... I'd really like to say that it was love at first sight,” he said. Asuka raised an eyebrow, but allowed him to fully explain himself. “I will admit that when I first saw you on the deck of that aircraft carrier, I was staring at you until... you slapped me.”

“I wasn't going to just let you and your stooge friends gawk at me when the wind blew my skirt up!” Asuka replied defensively. “None of you averted your eyes like a gentleman would!”

“Oh... that was what happened?” Shinji asked. “I was too focused on your face and that red hair to notice much of anything else.”

Asuka leaned in close and narrowed her eyes. “That's the truth, is it?”

“I'd never seen anybody with red hair before!” Shinji shifted away slightly from her accusatory look. “And you looked... um... uh... b-beautiful...”

Her cheeks pinking up for what felt like the hundredth time that day, Asuka held the stare for a few more seconds, before leaning back and saying, “...A-alright, I guess I'll believe you. It's still rude to stare though, regardless of my beauty.” She turned her head away, crossed her arms, and mock pouted.

Shinji smiled at her, and continued his story after a moment. He had found himself wanting to know more about her, and was going to ask Misato, but the Angel attack had been a rather major interruption.

He realised he was starting to fall for her when they had defeated the Seventh Angel and were getting out of their Evangelions. Despite the argument that they had just had, Asuka had been incredibly cheerful for the rest of the day. And it hadn't been the usual smirk on her face, but a proper smile.

“When I finally got Rei to smile, I felt like I could take on an Angel without my Eva,” Shinji said. “But when  _ you _ smile, properly smile with your whole face... I feel like I could bust the Fourteenth Angel's core just by spitting at it.”

Asuka couldn't help herself.

She smiled.

There was nowhere near enough time for Shinji to enjoy the smile, as Misato burst in through the door, wiping the smile off Asuka's face as she saw the serious expression her foster mother wore.

“Asuka... you need to see who just came back from Instrumentality,” Misato whispered as she got close to the two teenagers.

“Who?” queried Asuka and Shinji at the same time.

“You won't believe me unless you see for yourself.” Misato completely ignored their synchronised response. That alone told Asuka how serious this was. Not to mention that she had not even so much as glanced at the tank where their hands mirrored each other.

Casting a worried glance at Shinji, Asuka got up and followed Misato out of the room, nodding at Rei as she passed. Rei returned the nod and took her place next to Shinji.

The walk only took a minute, but Asuka's mind was racing the entire time, wondering who could have returned to shock Misato like this. She was rather surprised to see Kaji waiting outside the door that the woman stopped at. The scruffy man was just as serious-looking as Misato, and said nothing.

Both of the adults were now staring at Asuka, who was starting to get nervous. As she opened her mouth to speak, Kaji shook his head and jerked a thumb at the door. It hissed quietly open as Misato pressed the button, and Asuka walked in. The room's lights were low, and she couldn't make out who was in the bed. She stepped closer, inching forward, until she finally noticed an obvious detail about the bed's occupant.

Red hair.

"...Mama?"

Asuka felt her legs start to give out, and she was only saved from collapsing by Misato and Kaji, their hands suddenly gripping her upper arms. After a long moment of staring at the woman on the bed, she gently shook out of their grasp and stepped towards the bed.

This was no trick. Nor a dream, unless she had somehow fallen asleep while with Shinji; the thought of their joint confessions being false was instantly thrown out of her mind.

Her mother was _back_.

The girl's vision was beginning to blur, and she roughly wiped an arm across her face to get rid of the wetness in her eyes. Nothing was going to get in the way of her gazing upon her mother's face.

In spite of her physical appearance, that of somebody who appeared to be suffering from both malnourishment and chronic fatigue, Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu still looked serene. Asuka was compelled to gently shake her in an attempt to wake her up. Several calls of 'Mama?' went unheeded, and Misato soon spoke up behind her.

“She's not asleep, Asuka. Doctors say she's unconscious.”

Asuka whirled around. “But she's okay... right?” she asked, fear beginning to creep into her voice.

“It's too early to tell, I'm afraid,” Misato replied. “They'll need time to find out exactly what's wrong with her, if anything. You can see how bad she seems. It's strange... nobody else that came back from Instrumentality looked like she does. Fuyutsuki came back at the same time, and he's sitting up in bed reading a newspaper already.”

Turning back to her mother, Asuka gently ran a hand over the woman's forehead, brushing some loose strands of hair away from her face.

“What I'd like to know is how the heck she managed to return in the first place,” Kaji mused. “After all, she did die just over a decade before...”  He trailed off as Asuka looked up at him. “...Sorry, Asuka. Didn't mean to bring the mood down.”

“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wondering the same thing,”  Asuka remarked . “Mama even told me when we met in Instrumentality that she didn't think she could return, due to not having a real body.”

Kaji and Misato looked thoughtfully at each other. “Maybe Lilith helped?” the unshaven man wondered.

Misato shrugged. “That's one possibility. I'm also curious about the fact that she still looks to be in her early thirties, but she was thirty-one when... she died ten years ago.” She shot an apologetic look at Asuka, who simply nodded in response.

“Huh? You can tell so easily that she's still that young?” Kaji scratched his head. “And don't say it's one of those 'woman's intuition' things.”

Both females glared at him, and he wisely decided to shut up.

“You're right though, Misato,” Asuka interjected. “Mama looks exactly like I remember her. And I mean _exactly_.”

It would be impossible for the girl to forget how her mother looked during the woman's final days, as they had been involuntarily seared into her mind by the events of that time. If her mother apparently hadn't aged at all while her soul had been interred in Unit-02, did that mean that she was still technically thirty-one years of age? If not, well, they could just claim that her mother was naturally youthful.

The girl's train of thought came to a halt as she noticed that there was _one_ thing that was out of place on her mother. She tilted her head in curiosity as she looked at Kyoko's hair. Carefully avoiding the monitoring devices and intravenous drip, she pulled the woman's body up slightly and confirmed her suspicions.

Upon Kyoko's admittance to the mental ward after her disastrous Contact Experiment, her long red hair had been practically hacked off, reduced to roughly the level of her neck. Asuka, being only a small child at the time, didn't know why that had been done, but she still remembered how sad it had made her. Of course, that point in her life had been filled with sadness, so it had just been one more bad thing added to the pile.

Now, though, her mother's hair was back to being full-length. If it weren't for the fact that the woman was horizontal, it would have cascaded down past the small of her back. The realisation that there was one more good thing about her mother's return brought a smile to Asuka's face.

Kaji made a silent exit, marked only by the hissing of the door as it opened and closed. Misato stepped up beside the Second Child and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“So... I guess you're no longer my foster daughter...” Misato murmured, a hint of sadness evident in her words.

Asuka looked up at the woman, and patted the hand on her shoulder. “I guess not,” she replied ruefully. “But... you still have Rei and Shinji. And you have Kaji back. Unless you end up killing him, you'll be able to have some real kids of your own.”

“True. If he disappears again, we're going to have problems.” Misato chuckled. “Maybe I should put a bomb collar on him. Ritsuko said she found one that NERV created back when Rei was still... new. Something about it being a contingency in case she attempted to start an Impact-level event. Ritsuko even offered me the manual trigger for it, and said she'd be happy to put the collar on Kaji.”

“A hundred yen says he'd still find a way to get out of it.”

“No bet. He got out of handcuffs and leg shackles with a paper clip.”

The smiles on their faces were weak, but they were genuine.

“What are you going to do when your mother is able to leave the hospital?” Misato inquired. “Will you be moving into a house with her?”

Asuka winced, before sighing and looking down at her mother. “Damn, you have to start asking the tough questions already, don't you? I _really_ want to... but Shinji still needs me.” She suddenly stopped talking as yet another blush began to creep across her face, brought on by the memory of Shinji saying those three words, and she couldn't stop a tiny smile from breaking out.

Unfortunately for the girl, it didn't go unnoticed.

“Oooh, I must have missed out on something. What was it?” Misato asked.

“W-what? N-nothing!” Asuka stammered as her face turned fully red.

“Come now, Asuka. Would you really be blushing that bad if nothing happened?”

Asuka stifled a growl, sullenly turning her head away from the prying woman and choosing to calm herself by focusing on her mother instead. She gently cupped one of Kyoko's hands in both of hers and began to run a thumb across the back of it. “Just knock it off, alright?” she hissed.

Clearly, Misato realised that it wasn't the time. In the space of a second, she went from 'teasing older sister' persona to her much more motherly attitude. “Hey... I'm sorry, Asuka,” she softly apologised, laying a hand on the girl's shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah...” muttered Asuka. She was glad that Misato had chosen to drop the matter, seeing as how there was a much more important one laying right in front of them. But she knew that it _would_ get brought up later. “Just... give me some time with Mama, please.”

“Of course.”

Misato stopped at the door, and looked back. “Do you want me to tell Shinji and Rei?”

Asuka thought for a moment, before shaking her head. “No, I'll tell them myself.”

The woman nodded and quietly left, leaving  Asuka alone with her unconscious mother. Not long afterwards, a couple of doctors came in to examine Kyoko. Asuka sat by and watched them cautiously; if they were unnerved by her, they didn't let it show.

Half an hour passed, and Asuka stayed next to the bed, holding her mother's hand. She was just beginning to doze off when another doctor entered the room, accompanied by two orderlies.

“Ms. Soryu?” the doctor inquired, getting Asuka's attention. At her hesitant nod, he continued. “We need to run some scans on your mother.”

Once again, Asuka worriedly asked, “Is she going to be okay?”

“That's what the scans will tell us,” the doctor replied. “Your mother is the first person to return from Instrumentality in such a... depleted state. Just from our initial findings, it appears that she's both malnourished and dehydrated. Patrols along the beach are still regular enough that she would have been found well before those problems could have set in normally.”

Asuka frowned, but remained silent as she moved aside and watched her mother get taken away. Her mind began to conjure various bad theories for her mother's condition, but she was soon thankfully distracted from them by the ringing of her cellphone, with a worried-sounding Hikari on the line.

“ _Asuka? Is everything okay? Miss Katsuragi called us a few days ago and asked us to look after Pen-Pen, and I haven't heard anything from you since then.”_

The frown turned into a smile. “I'm okay, but... things didn't go how we expected in the last battle.”

“ _Oh no! Who's hurt?”_ The worry in the class representative's voice increased.

“...Shinji. He got knocked around pretty bad.” Asuka sighed, and recounted what she believed she could to a civilian about that day.

Hikari was predictably horrified at the extent of Shinji's injuries, and only settled down a little upon hearing how NERV was going to heal him. She briefly considered mentioning her mother, but then realised how confusing -and possibly rule-breaking- it would be to explain everything that had happened. After stating that she needed to stay at NERV for a while longer, Asuka changed the subject to how Hikari and the Stooges had been doing. She relaxed in her chair and let the recounting of a  _normal_ teenage life wash over her.

Toji had taken Hikari out on a simple dinner-and-a-movie date the night before. Surprisingly for Hikari it hadn't been a mindless explosion-filled action flick, rather it had been something they both enjoyed. Another surprise had been that a girl from their class had approached Kensuke the day after the latest Revenant attack, and had nervously asked for 'help with her studies'.

Asuka could hear the inverted commas around that statement.

The two girls spent a little more time chatting, before Hikari had to say goodbye and prepare dinner. As the call ended, Asuka looked at the time on her phone. Only twenty minutes had passed, and she had no idea how long it would take for the doctor to finish the scans on her mother. Hikari's mention of dinner made her stomach grumble but she wanted to check in on Shinji and Rei first, mostly to tell them the good news.

She saw Rei first, standing outside the room and staring at her cellphone. As Asuka drew near, the  First Child looked up at her.

“Asuka,” she said by way of greeting, before glancing back down at her phone and back up. “You are well-versed in social interactions, correct?”

The strange question stopped the redhead in her tracks. “Uh... yes?” she tentatively replied.

“Perhaps you can explain what Kensuke just said to me. He called shortly before you arrived here, sounding very nervous, and said that we should see other people.” She appeared to not notice the sudden widening of Asuka's eyes as she added, “Is he attempting to say that we should be trying to make some new friends?”

It took several long minutes for Asuka to patiently explain that Kensuke was breaking up with her.

“Oh!” Rei quietly exclaimed as she finally understood. “He believed that we were in a romantic relationship?” Asuka nodded. “Strange. Maybe it is because I am... unskilled in social interactions, but I never believed we were anything but friends.”

“I'm... pretty sure that must have been purely on Kensuke's side,” Asuka replied. “Did you ever go out with him anywhere?”

Rei thought for a moment. “We did go to a ramen place two weeks ago. Kensuke paid for my meal as a way of thanking me for helping him with his studies. He also apologised that he couldn't afford to take me somewhere better.”

Asuka sucked in air through clenched teeth. “Yyyeahhh... that was most likely a date, Wondergirl. As much of one as Nerd Stooge could manage.” For a moment she considered telling the oblivious girl about what Hikari had said about another girl asking Kensuke for 'study help', but eventually discarded the thought for the time being. It had been confusing enough to explain the concept of ending a romantic relationship, and she was getting hungrier.

"Okay... um... Sorry to hear that, First," she eventually said. "I just came here to make sure everything was fine before I got myself something to eat. I'll never get used to cafeteria food after the meals Shinji's made for us." A confused frown crossed her face. "Speaking of which, how are they actually feeding him while he's in the tube?"

“Fortunately, that's a question that doesn't need to be answered now.”

Asuka turned around to face the newcomer. Another doctor was standing nearby, with two more orderlies and a gurney. She peered intently at them, trying to work out if they were the same ones that had wheeled her mother away. Like Section Two, the orderlies seemed to have been made from a mould, so it was impossible for her to tell.

“We're not exactly sure why at the moment,” the doctor continued. “But Shinji Ikari's recovery rate in the healing tank has exceeded our expectations. He's now as healed as he'll ever be, so we can finally get him out of there and into a hospital room.”

Only Asuka picked up the subtleties in Rei's voice as the bluenette replied, “That is wonderful news.”

As the doctor and the orderlies set to work on decanting Shinji, Rei and Asuka were asked to avert their gaze while they took the boy out and cleaned him up before dressing him in a standard-issue hospital gown.

The orderlies took a suspiciously similar route as they wheeled Shinji through the medical wing, Asuka and Rei following close behind. As they entered a room and began to transfer the boy to the bed, the redhead looked at the room number, frowned, and looked at the next door over.

The frown changed to a smile.

Somebody had arranged things so that Shinji's room was right next to her mother's. And she didn't need to guess _who_ had done the arranging. Asuka made a mental note to thank Misato later. The orderlies left, a mumbled thanks directed by Shinji at their retreating backs.

“So how does it feel to be out of that tank?” Asuka inquired as she sat down on a chair next to the bed.

“...My skin feels kind of weird,” Shinji replied, absently rubbing his chest. “Like I'm still in the tank. I swear I can still feel the stuff coating me.”

“Might just need a good scrubbing to get rid of whatever is left. Bring that up with Akagi the next time you see her.” The redhead leaned forward in her seat as a grin split her face. “Anyway, I've got something that ought to take your mind off of it.”

Asuka happily filled him and Rei in on her mother's return. While Rei gave her congratulations in her usual low voice, the smile on her face covered for her lack of audible emotion. Shinji, on the other hand, was almost as excited as Asuka herself had been, until he began to stare at her.

“What, do I have something on my face?” she asked.

“No, um... Sorry if this sounds strange,” Shinji replied. “But you don't seem as excited as I thought you'd be.”

“Oh? What _were_ you expecting, Third?” Asuka levelled an interrogative look at the boy.

He shrugged nervously. “Um... well... exuberant. Practically bouncing off the walls. But right now it seems more like you've just been told you broke your sync record.”

The redhead almost shot an answer back immediately, but then she stopped and considered. Eventually, she said, “I'm happy.  _Very_ happy. But Mama didn't come back like other people did. She's... weak. There might be something wrong with her.”

“You are afraid of getting your hopes up,” Rei quietly said.

Asuka froze, then slumped in her seat. “...Yeah,” she muttered. It was something she had been afraid to admit to herself, but  Rei had hit the nail on the head.

“Hey, now.” Shinji reached over as best as he could and, somewhat anxiously, patted  her shoulder. “Your mother will be fine. She's  _ your _ mother, after all.”

Though they were simple, his words of encouragement worked. The smile returned to Asuka's face. “Yeah, you're right. Us Soryus are too damn stubborn to just roll over and die! I mean, just look at me! Death only slowed me down for a little while.”

Shinji's own smile turned brittle. Asuka caught the change, and her hands swiftly latched onto his before it could retreat. “Hey. What did I say before about the past?” she demanded. “Don't tell me you've forgotten already, dummy.”

“Um... no, I remember. It's just... going to take some time I guess.” He stared down at where their hands met for a moment, before looking up into the steely sapphire eyes of the Second Child.

“Yeah, I know,” Asuka replied. “But I'm going to keep reminding you until you stop.”

Two rumbles cut off whatever Shinji was going to say next. Both he and Asuka blushed as their stomachs complained in perfect sync. A few seconds later, Rei's stomach echoed the sentiment.

“Uh... maybe Wondergirl and I should get us some dinner.”

* * *

While waiting in line at the cafeteria, at least one part of Asuka was always either drumming or tapping as she wished that everything would hurry up so that she could be back by Shinji's side.

Her nervousness about having to 'choose' between her mother and the boy she had finally confessed to had abated slightly thanks to the room arrangements, but she still realised that time spent with one was taking away from the other.

But at least Shinji was awake now, and she wouldn't feel _as_ bad about leaving him alone, seeing as she had managed to do as she had promised herself and be there when he woke up.

At the thought of the hospital rooms, Asuka remembered to text Misato, both thanking her for what was undoubtedly her idea, and requesting another bed for Shinji's room so that she could sleep there. It would probably be awkward to get the beds close together, but she had yet to find something she wouldn't do in order to help Shinji.

A couple minutes after sending the text, her phone alerted her to a reply. Misato had passed on the request for a bed just fine, but it was the second half of the message that gave Asuka pause.

“ _I wouldn't mind taking the credit, but it was actually Ritsuko's idea for the room arrangements.”_

Oh.

Huh.

Rei noticed her expression, and Asuka showed her the message upon her polite query.

“She is trying to make amends,”  Rei noted.

Asuka nodded. “I suppose so. Guess this means I'll have to be nice to her.”

“That would be logical, seeing as she is attempting the same thing.”

Asuka would have continued the conversation, but they finally reached the front of the cafeteria line.

In the end, it had taken just over twenty minutes for the girls to get food and return to Shinji's room. When they arrived, the girls saw a doctor attaching what looked like a department store mannequin's arm to the Third Child's right side.

“ _Please_ tell me that's not the best prosthesis NERV has available,” Asuka observed as she placed Shinji's portion on the table next to the bed.

Shinji looked up and smiled upon hearing her voice as the doctor replied, “With the loss of his arm, his body is no longer symmetrical. This is a temporary measure to stop it from trying to adjust to the lack of weight on one side, which can cause back problems, until the prosthesis is ready.”

The man signalled for the boy to give him his left arm. “How does it feel now, Mr. Ikari?” he asked as he thoughtfully weighed the false and real arm together.

Shinji shifted his shoulders for a moment. “Um... my left side still feels a little heavier.”

“Yes... that is my impression too.” The doctor dug into his pocket and brought out a couple of cylindrical metal discs. A hatch on the side of the false arm was popped open and the discs were inserted. “How about now?”

It took a few more minutes of adjustment, both of the weight and the harness holding the arm on, before Shinji was both satisfied and comfortable. After the doctor left, Asuka let Rei take the chair next to the bed while she left to get another one. This also allowed her to check in on the room next door, but her mother was evidently still being scanned. Slightly disheartened, she took the chair in that room and left.

Fortunately for Shinji, the shape of the bedside dinner tray that his plate now rested on was designed to prevent things from slipping off. This allowed him to somewhat easily eat his dinner, a simple meal of diced chicken and rice, with one hand and without needing to ask for help.

Despite his handicap, he was the first to finish eating. Clearly ravenous, and perhaps unconsciously desperate to fill a brand new stomach, Asuka was almost expecting him to literally lick the plate clean, as he hadn't eaten for close to four days at this point; an intravenous drip would provide nutrients, but did nothing for an empty stomach.

Just as the redhead was considering going back to the cafeteria to get him more food, Rei beat her to it, placing her mostly-unfinished bowl of salad on Shinji's tray.

“Huh? You're not hungry, Rei?” Shinji asked, looking curiously at the bowl.

“I could eat more, but you need it more than I, brother,”  she replied. “Besides, I can always have something to eat at home.”

With a tilt of his head, Shinji conceded the point and began to dig into the salad. It disappeared almost as fast as his own meal.

“How was your dinner, Asuka?” he asked as soon as the bowl was empty.

Asuka shrugged. “Eh, it filled a hole-” She stopped and winced at her choice of words, then shook her head. “What about yours? Is that new stomach sufficiently broken in?”

Shinji let a small chuckle loose as he patted his gut. “Yeah, I guess so. Feels a little... weird down there though.”

“Weird? As in something that might need a doctor?” Asuka worriedly asked.

“No, no, nothing like that. It's really hard to explain...”

“Then don't worry. Just make sure you let someone know if it starts feeling _wrong_.”

Shinji nodded, gently drumming his fingers against his stomach.

They continued to chat for a while, until Rei collected the dishes as she got up to leave. She said her goodbyes, but only reached the door before Asuka called her back.  Rei was confused, until  she walked over to her and quietly spoke, low enough that Shinji couldn't hear.

“Do you mind bringing in Shinji's SDAT next time you visit? From what I saw when I took him to the mall, it seems to do pretty well at distracting him from the... memory surge or whatever you want to call it.” Rei nodded her assent, and turned to leave again, but Asuka wasn't done. “By the way, since you're family, there's something you can give Shinji as part of a goodbye...”

Rei's eyes widened as Asuka whispered what that thing was in her ear, and she walked over to the bed and drew Shinji into a hug; an act that stunned the boy for a moment until a loudly cleared throat reminded him to return the gesture.

After Rei left, it was not long before another identical orderly arrived with a bed. If the man was curious about why a room with only one patient needed a second bed, he gave no indication of it as he set it up opposite Shinji's bed. He wasn't even gone a minute before Asuka began moving it to its proper position.

“Um, Asuka...?”

The German girl looked askance at him as she rearranged the furniture. “Don't even think about asking why I'm doing this. We've slept in the same room for long enough that the answer should be obvious.”

To his credit, Shinji didn't immediately blush at the words she used. Instead he looked away, a glum look on his face. Asuka held back from consoling him for the moment; bed preparation first, then comfortable comforting.

The wheel locks ensured the beds wouldn't slip apart, and there was was only a tiny gap between the mattresses with the beds flush against each other. Satisfied that neither of them would wake up on the floor, Asuka turned down the room lights before taking off her shoes and hopping onto 'her' bed, shuffling her body under the covers. Shinji soon awkwardly followed suit, and she absently reached out for his hand.

Normally, their hands practically just rested together, one occasionally lightly squeezing the other as they slept. This time, Asuka was feeling brave, and did something different. After all, they had both confessed to each other. There was nothing wrong with what she was about to do.

Her fingers began to ever-so-slowly slither in between his, and Asuka smiled at the quietly shocked gasp that Shinji uttered. Turning her head to the side, she grinned at the shade of red the boy's face had turned. But then he did something that surprised her right back.

Shinji's own fingers pressed in on the back of Asuka's hand, locking the hold. Now it was her turn to gasp, and she was pretty sure that her face was now also matching his.

“...Asuka...”

“...Yeah?”

Shinji took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened, Asuka was pierced by his cobalt stare.

“...Thank you for everything you've done for me,” he quietly said, punctuating his words with a squeeze of their linked hands.

Asuka smiled and squeezed right back in response. She wanted to lay there and stare at his eyes forever. The semi-permanent expression of a kicked puppy had been banished, and Asuka hoped his eyes would no longer return to such a sad state.

Sadly, the Evangelions were still needed to fight the Revenants, so there was always the chance that something _else_ would go wrong.

* * *

The next day saw the return of Kyoko to her hospital room, but it was small comfort to Asuka. As Shinji had been spirited away to prepare him for his prosthetic legs, she was left alone in 'their' hospital room and decided to pass the time with her mother.

When she went in to see her, the doctor looking her over stated that the preliminary results of her scans revealed that Kyoko's body was excessively depleted of vital nutrients and minerals; much more than mere malnutrition should account for.

One possibility was beginning to stick out in Asuka's mind. She had stood and watched as her mother's body was lowered into the ground a decade ago; far too long ago to have been reduced to LCL during Third Impact. Something had happened to _give_ her mother a new body, perhaps in a way similar to how Suzuhara had lost an arm before Third Impact and returned with both. Asuka sighed as she leaned over the bed, gently stroking Kyoko's forehead.

Obviously, the process hadn't been perfect.

The next week saw no positive change in Kyoko's condition, but there was no negative change either. Shinji seemed to pick up on Asuka's sombre mood whenever the girl returned to their room, and did what he could to cheer her up.

She was glad to be distracted by hearing of how Shinji's prosthetic legs would be ready far sooner than his arm, and that he was looking forward to at least being able to walk again. Being pushed around in a wheelchair, even if it was Asuka doing the pushing, didn't sit well with a boy who hated to be an inconvenience.

Asuka was rather surprised to learn about how Shinji had been asked for his preference for the design of his new limbs; she had just been expecting them to just be made to look like real ones. According to the man who had posed the question to Shinji, some people _preferred_ the artificial look, and some even got their prostheses coloured in their favourite sports team colours.

Strangely, Shinji didn't seem as fond of the idea of looking like a 'badass cyborg' as much as she did.

“Really? You don't even want an awesome arm?” Asuka incredulously asked. “Okay, maybe you don't have to get one that looks like you ripped it off an evil robot...” She paused to grin as she imagined Shinji with an arm cannon, causing the boy to give her an almost fearful look, “But after everything you've been through, you deserve one that says... something like, 'I fought monsters and won'.”

Shinji at least seemed to consider it after that conversation.

When there was no news to talk about, Shinji would instead offer the music player to Asuka, and they would listen to the songs together. One time, when she was feeling particularly down about her mother, the boy did something that would have been normal for any other couple, but was incredibly brave coming from him.

He put his arm around her in the first hug that he had ever been the instigator of. That alone kept Asuka going for at least two days. By then, there was something new to occupy her time.

Shinji began his physical therapy sessions to learn how to use his new legs, and Asuka insisted on being there. It didn't take long for her to be able to sense when he was about to fall or stumble, and she was almost always there to help him up before the therapist that was assigned to the Third Child.

While the woman did seem affronted that Asuka was doing part of _her_ job, she seemed to know that the girl's presence was inspiring Shinji to do his best. He progressed through the therapy much faster than anticipated, and was soon haltingly walking to and from the sessions unaided.

Holding hands didn't count.

After a few days, Shinji made up his mind about the design of his arm, and told Asuka first.

“So you've decided to get a normal-looking one?”

Shinji nodded. “Yeah. Some of those designs you showed me did look rather amazing, even the more subtle-looking ones. And I'm sure some of the people we know wouldn't mind seeing me with an arm that looks like Unit-01... but I'd just feel better if I'm not standing out because of my prosthesis.”

Asuka also nodded. “Mm. Yes, I know you, Shinji. You've never liked to have attention focused on you.” She put an arm around the boy and began to gently rub his right shoulder, just above where the temporary prosthesis began. “In the end, it's _your_ body and _your_ decision. If you want to get an arm that looks natural, then I wouldn't be much of a...” she coughed nervously, “...g-girlfriend if I tried to force my own opinion on you.”

“Thanks, Asuka,” Shinji replied with a warm smile, which the girl mirrored.

* * *

“Damnit, another Pattern Orange already?”

Ritsuko nodded. “The MAGI have confirmed it. It will arrive within approximately two hours.”

Misato sighed deeply. “We're still down a pilot, and this one's going to be stronger than the last.”

The scientist hesitated as she prepared to send the automated alert to the pilot's phones. “Asuka's already at NERV. Shall I send her a personal message instead? Shinji may try to tag along if he knows there's another attack. He's doing well with his new legs, and might try to get into Unit-01.”

Misato thought for a moment. “Send Kaji to look after him. I don't want Shinji on his own, and maybe that stupid man will be able to keep him from sneaking off to the cages.”

* * *

Shinji's head shot up from where it had been resting on Asuka's shoulder as the text message alert on her phone went off. Asuka lazily stretched her left arm out to grab at the phone, unwilling to move too much and ruin the warm moment they were having.

The content of the message did a good enough job of that. Asuka fought to keep her face from changing as she read it.

“What is it?” Shinji asked curiously.

“Uh...” she thought quickly. “Misato wants to chat with me about something, but she's too busy to leave her office right now. I should be back in time for your therapy session though.” That part was hopefully truthful at least.

The boy appeared to sense no deception, and nodded as he ended the side hug he had been giving her. Asuka hesitated for a moment as she made to get up from the bed, before throwing her arms around Shinji and squeezing him in a tight hug for a few seconds, making a satisfied noise as his warmth flowed into her.

It was with great regret that Asuka broke the hug and left the room. She passed Kaji on the way, who said that he was going to 'keep Shinji company'.  She urged him not to let the boy fight, to which the spy stated that Misato had already given him that order. Something in his demeanour seemed suspicious, but there was no time to stop and think about it as Asuka hurried on to the changing rooms.

Fifteen minutes later, the red and blue Evangelions were in the launch cradles, ready to head up to the surface.

“ _You two ready to go?”_ Misato asked.

“Damn right I am!” Asuka replied. Rei replied more sedately, but there was still fire in her eyes.

There was a surprise standing next to Unit-02 in the cradle that everybody hoped would tip the scales in humanity's favour. The false Lance of Longinus that the Fourth Revenant had brought with it had been repaired, and there had been no question as to who would get to use it. NERV hadn't been able to work out how to make the weapon shift between forms, but Asuka didn't mind as she  _wanted_ it in its spear configuration.

“It's time for a little payback!” Asuka muttered dangerously, her mouth twisting into a grin at the thought of revenge.

“ _Give 'em hell, Asuka! Evas, launch!”_


	27. Chapter 27

Harsh white light seared into the back of the girl's head the moment her eyes began to flicker open, forcing them closed again. Keeping the light out did nothing for the splitting headache she felt as she let out an involuntary groan of pain.

She tried to bring her right hand up to rub at her forehead, but there was something holding it down. Some hesitant probing with her left hand told her that it was somebody else's arm resting on hers, crossing over just below the elbow.

And the fingers of that hand were intertwined with her own.

Asuka Langley-Soryu summoned up her strength and opened her eyes again. The hospital light still seemed like it wanted to burn her retinas out, so she turned away from it as quickly as she could, suffering a stab of agony in the back of her head in the process.

Fortunately, the sight that greeted her made the effort worth the pain, and she smiled at the peacefully sleeping face of the boy laying next to her.

Just as the warmth provided by Shinji Ikari was about to lull her back to sleep, his eyes fluttered open and locked onto hers.

“Mmnnn... 'suka?” Shinji mumbled as he slowly woke up.

“Hey,” Asuka said back, before frowning and adding. “What happened?”

The boy's brain was clearly still in the middle of booting up as he replied. “Revn'nt. Y' got h'rt.” He let out a large yawn before making an effort to sit up and vigorously shake his head. “Not badly, but you got a concussion.”

That explained the pain in the back of her head, as well as the light sensitivity. Asuka shaded her eyes as best as she could as she too sat up. Her head throbbed in protest, but she ignored it. “Can't have just been a Revenant,” she said. “Especially since I had one of their damn weapons. Should have been a breeze.”

“You are correct. It was two Revenants.”

Asuka's head spun around, causing yet more pain.

“Hello, Asuka. It is good to see you awake again,” said Rei, standing in the doorway leading into the adjacent bathroom with a cup of water in her hand. She walked over to the bed and passed the cup to Asuka, who mumbled her thanks before drinking it dry in seconds.

“So... I can't really remember anything beyond the launch,” the redhead muttered after placing the cup on the table next to the bed.

“The doctor that brought you in here said you might have some short-term amnesia,” said Shinji.

Asuka turned, slowly this time, to stare incredulously at the boy. “Amnesia? _And_ a concussion? What the hell happened to me?” She gently rubbed the back of her head as she spoke. The pain was beginning to dim, but it felt like it was going to remain for a while longer.

As the First Child spoke, bits and pieces of the battle began to creep back into Asuka's memory.

“ _This time, I'm not just fighting for Shinji. I'm fighting for Mama too!”_

“As I said, two Revenants attacked this time,” said Rei. “Both of them were heavily armoured, but they had no weapons. We split up to deal with both, and fought for a few minutes until you successfully eliminated your target by impaling its core with the stolen Lance. Unfortunately, the core detonated immediately and destroyed the Lance. Unit-02 suffered some minor damage as you were unable to move out of range in time.”

_Exultation flowed through Asuka as her new weapon finally stabbed deeply into the Revenant's core, only be tempered by anger as she bemoaned the loss of said weapon in the core's explosion._

Rei's head drooped as she continued to recount the battle. “Instead of the remains of that Revenant flowing back into the ocean, the other target absorbed them. I am... sorry, Asuka.” She looked sadly up at her fellow pilot. “I was unable to stop them from merging while you recovered.”

“Don't bother apologising, First,” Asuka wearily replied. “These things are obviously cheating just as hard as the Angels did.” She glanced pointedly at Shinji, who began to absentmindedly rub what remained of his right arm. “Anyway, what happened next?”

“The remaining Revenant's armour became almost impervious to anything we could attack it with,” the First Child said. “Even our strongest weapon emplacements and rockets were not enough to shatter it.”

“So how did you defeat it?” Shinji inquired. “I mean, you obviously managed somehow...”

“Desperate times called for desperate measures. On recommendation from the MAGI after determining the force required, Misato ordered an N2 strike with three warheads at point blank range in order to crack the armour. Asuka and I were tasked with keeping the Revenant inside the target area.”

_The Revenant seemed to know what was about to fall on its head. It charged recklessly towards Asuka, and the two titans slammed together like sumo wrestlers, each attempting to bring the other to the ground._

“It was strong. _Really_ strong,” Asuka murmured. “We could barely hold it back. One of us had to _keep_ it there.”

Rei nodded. “You insisted on that duty, and since you are more skilled than I at melee combat, I agreed. You held the Revenant until the N2 strike was only a few seconds away, and then your entry plug ejected.”

“Strange,” Asuka murmured. “I don't remember triggering the-”

_Rockets ignited a split second after she ejected, blasting the entry plug away from Unit-02 at over a hundred kilometres per hour. It was fast enough to escape the blast radius, but not enough to outrun the shockwave. Already off-balance from the sudden ejection, Asuka was knocked around inside the plug as it went off course. Alarms sounded, but she was too busy keeping a death grip on her seat to attempt to silence them._

_The last thing she heard before the entry plug hit the ground was the sound of a boy screaming her name over the comm system._

Asuka leaned forward, clutching at her head with both hands. She finally noticed the strangely heavy cylindrical device wrapped around her upper left arm that smelled faintly of LCL. Rei was still talking, but her voice sounded far away.

_She awoke a few minutes later, with her head pounding and an agonising new bend in her left arm. There was no LCL in her plug anymore; it had evidently been emptied shortly after her crash landing. She felt the back of her head with her right hand, and her fingers came away red and sticky. Asuka silently thanked whoever decided to use LCL as a shock absorber in the entry plug. If she had taken that impact without it, her brains would likely have been splattered across the plug._

_As it was, her head still felt like that had happened though._

She was pulled out of the memory by a hand gently rubbing her back, and Asuka turned to look into Shinji's worried face. A faint smile was enough to convince him that she was alright, but he still shifted his hand to lightly press her shoulder down in an attempt to get her horizontal again. Since there was no reason she could think of to remain upright for the time being, she allowed it.

There were still some chunks missing from her memory, but some patient questioning enabled the First Child to fill them in. Unit-00 had charged towards the Revenant almost before the explosion had dissipated, and finished it with two knives delivered directly into its core before the smoke had cleared, and before the enemy could recover.

Unit-02 had suffered some major damage from the close proximity of the N2 explosions, despite being partially shielded by its unfortunate opponent, and would take at least two week for repairs to complete. Its entry plug was crippled in the crash, but there were plenty of spares to go around.

After a little while, Rei excused herself to go tell Misato that Asuka was awake. The moment the door closed behind the girl, Asuka sighed and spoke.

"You know, she could have just used her phone to send Misato a message instead of walking off."

Strangely, there was no response from the Third Child, but she could sense an aura of disapproval.

“...I... guess you saw through my little deception, huh?”

“I had a bad feeling. I was pretty sure what it was as soon as your phone began to ring,” Shinji admitted, sounding somewhat sheepish as he laid back down. “I was just hoping I was wrong. That maybe you were getting called away for a surprise sync test or something.”

After a long and slow exhalation, Asuka quietly replied, “I'm sorry for lying to you.”

Shinji chuckled softly. “It sounds strange to hear  _you_ apologise to  _me._ ”

“Yeah, but I'm serious.”

“I know.” His hand slithered over hers, fingers absently caressing her palm. “You were just trying to keep me safe. I'm sure if I'd tried to leave with you, Mister Kaji would have just tried to drag me back here. At least I managed to convince him to let me watch.”

_'Watch me get hurt again,'_ Asuka sullenly thought. Her right hand began to idly clench Shinji's questing fingers, occasionally snapping shut before opening again to let them continue. “You're still injured though. You wouldn't have been able to join us.”

“Bullshit.”

The redhead almost swallowed her tongue at the curse that erupted from Shinji's mouth. “W-what?” she gasped. She had never heard him swear before.

“Even if I didn't have these new legs, I would have been able to pilot,” Shinji replied, anger beginning to leak into his voice. He turned his head to face Asuka. “The Evas are controlled through the neural link, right? It wouldn't matter how many limbs I've lost if I'm using my mind to move Unit-01's arms and legs.”

“It's... not _that_ simple, Shinji.” Asuka's hand shifted to fully grasp the boy's hand. “Besides, you wouldn't be able to stay in the pilot seat without _at least_ your legs.”

Shinji growled through his teeth for a few seconds, before raising his head and slamming it into his pillow a couple of times. “You're right,” he eventually muttered. “You're right, and I hate that.”

“Hey, I hate it too. For once I wish I wasn't right, but...”

“Yeah...”

Several silent minutes passed before Shinji said, “I forgive you for lying, of course.” Asuka remained quiet, knowing that he wasn't finished. “Just... please don't do it again. I think the lie actually hurt a little more than seeing you get injured.”

“Well I'm sure you'll be joining us next time,” Asuka replied. “If your new arm isn't done soon, I'm going to ask Misato to get Commander-y at whoever's working on it.”

News about the prosthesis ended up arriving soon after the conversation petered out, thanks to the arrival of Misato and Rei. After greeting  Asuka with a hug and giving her own account of the battle, the woman informed them that Shinji's prosthesis only needed a couple more days to be completed. However, some surgery would be required to prepare what remained of Shinji's arm. The stump would receive implants to transmit the required signals from the brain all the way down to the tips of his new synthetic fingers.

“Now then, if there are no further questions,” Misato said after delivering the information, “I'd like to borrow Asuka for a bit if you don't mind, Shinji.”

The redhead and the boy both swivelled their heads to look curiously at her, making a questioning sound in perfect sync. “Um... okay?” Shinji hesitantly replied.

As she left the room, Asuka cast her gaze back through the doorway to see Rei gently rub Shinji's right shoulder as the Third Child smiled at her.

Misato stopped at the nearest bench, sitting down and patting the space next to her. Asuka paused for a moment, trying to work out why she had been called away, before slowly taking a seat next to her... _former_ foster mother?

“Before you get too concerned, I'm not here to judge you on how you fought,” the Commander of NERV stated. “It's actually about something a little more... personal.”

Her words had the opposite effect of what was intended for Asuka. There were only two things she could think of that Misato could be referring to. Her mother, or-

“I'd like to talk to you about Shinji.”

...Or that.

There wasn't really anything Asuka could think of to get out of the impending awkward and embarrassing conversation, short of faking sickness or injury. To Misato's credit, the woman seemed to not have teasing in mind this time, staying firmly in her caring and motherly persona. That was enough to get the inwardly cringing German girl to relax, if only slightly.

“W-what about him?” Asuka inquired, immediately cursing herself for stumbling over her words already.

The woman stared down at her lap and her fidgeting hands for a few seconds, before sighing and looking up at her. “I'm just going to come right out and say it. How are you two doing, now that you're together?”

A napalm bomb detonated on Asuka's face and her skin melted instantly.

At least, that was what it felt like.

The red-faced redhead spent the next ten seconds sputtering incomprehensibly, before she finally managed to choke out, “W-w-what are you t-talking about?!”

“I'm not blind, Asuka,” Misato replied. “I've seen how you and Shinji have been acting ever since he came out of the tank. You were close before that, but now...” A warm smile lit up the woman's face. “Let's just say that Kaji still doesn't suspect anything. And he's supposed to be a spy.”

“Pretty dumb one then,” Asuka sourly muttered. “But how do you know? We haven't exactly been shouting it from the rooftops.”

“I'm a woman too, Asuka.” At the girl's flat-eyed stare, Misato relented. “Alright, that and some bits of security footage. I'm glad you talked me into that bed arrangement; you two are just so adorable together!” She laid a gentle hand on her shoulder as her voice turned serious. “But do you have any idea just how proud you make me?”

“Huh?”

Asuka was surprised to see moisture gathering at the edges of Misato's eyes. She barely had enough time to let out a surprised squawk before she was almost crushed in a hug.

“I've been waiting for this for over a year, Asuka,” said Misato as she squeezed the girl tighter, mindful of the device on her arm.

“A-a year?! What?” the Second Child stammered out, muffled slightly by a shoulder in her face.

After one more squeeze, Misato finally let go. “Who do you think is the reason for having you two in my apartment? I was planning it as soon as I heard you were on your way to Japan.” She exhaled sadly. “I was hoping you two would become friends, support each other, that sort of thing. It crushed me to see you two fighting all the time.”

Asuka rubbed the back of her head. “If I knew even a fraction about Shinji back then as I did now, maybe we would have had a better relationship.”

“Well, better late - _very_ late- than never I suppose.” Wrapping an arm around the girl, Misato drew her closer and said, “You've more than made up for it though. It's all thanks to you that Shinji's getting better every day; physically _and_ mentally.”

A nurse passed by them, and two sets of eyes tracked her until she was out of earshot.

Asuka leaned into the hug. “It's the least I can do, considering it's kinda my fault that he-”

“Stop right there,” Misato quickly interrupted her. “I refuse to hear any talk like that.”

“But it-”

“No. You're helping him. Like I just said, you've more than made up for anything you might have done.”

The redhead knew when to give up, especially since she didn't _want_ to feel bad about what had happened the previous year.

“So anyway,” Misato continued. “How did it feel to hear those magic words?”

The slight change of subject was clearly meant to lift the mood. It took Asuka a few seconds to realise what the woman meant by 'magic words', but it took only a fraction of a second for her face to heat up again. Since everything was already out in the open, she didn't bother embarrassing herself further by attempting to deny what had taken place not so long ago.

“It... felt wonderful to hear them,” she quietly said. “I still remember how it felt when I first learned I was going to be an Eva pilot. What Shinji said was _so_ _much_ _better_.”

“And what about him?”

“I'm not a mind reader.”

Misato chuckled. “Alright then. What did he look like when you told him?”

Asuka didn't need to spend much time trying to remember. It was etched into her mind. “He looked... like a boy who had been trapped in a dark room for most of his life, only for somebody to suddenly open the door.”

“Keep him in the light, Asuka,” Misato solemnly requested. “That's all I ask of you.”

Sensing that the conversation was soon to be over, Asuka got to her feet. “Of course I will.”

“Oh, yes, one more thing before you go back to your boyfriend.”

The Second Child tried to fight down the blush that came forth when _that word_ was said. “What is it?”

“I'm... considering trying to get Shinji back into school again soon,” said Misato. “Do you think he'll be able to handle it yet?”

Asuka considered the idea. The SDAT player had worked its sinister magic once more, but for the cause of good. It had reached the point where Shinji once accidentally left it in their hospital room during a physical therapy session, and didn't seem overly concerned as he walked back through the medical wing without its protection.

But would it be enough to protect against an entire school's worth of people?

“Give me some time to bring it up with Shinji,” Asuka requested. “It's going to be a big step for him.”

“And you'll be there to take it with him.”

For once, Asuka didn't feel like arguing about going to school.

The two returned to Shinji and Asuka's room. He was still deep in conversation with Rei, who had a noticeable blush on her face when the redhead got back into her bed.

“I... um... don't think I can offer much help, Rei,” he said apologetically. “I don't exactly have a lot of experience, after all. Maybe Asuka or Misato can help you.”

“Help with what?” Asuka asked as she got comfortable.

“Romantic interactions,” Rei replied, causing Misato to quirk an eyebrow. “I was unable to see that Kensuke had such intentions towards me, and I do not wish to make the same mistake again.”

If the eyebrow on Misato's face could rise any more, it would have left the woman's face completely. “Did I miss something interesting?”

“You should ask Rei all about it,” Asuka suggested. “Not to mention that you're the most... ah... _experienced_ person. Definitely the best one to turn to.”

  
A clearly naïve First Child turned to Misato and asked, “Would you be willing to help me?”

“Sure! You've gotten me intrigued now.”

Asuka almost felt sorry for the girl as she was led away. If she was blushing just from trying to talk about it with her brother, then Misato would soon be able to fry an egg on Rei's face. Once she was positive that the two were gone, Asuka began to mentally prepare herself.

Ever since she had moved herself into Shinji's hospital room, there had been something that she was both eager to attempt yet afraid to bring up, considering what had happened last time. But talking to Misato about her relationship with the boy last year had stirred up _that_ memory, and it was now refusing to go away.

Perhaps it was finally time to make amends.

“...Hey Shinji,” Asuka nervously said.

“Yeah?”

“...” She took a deep breath.

“Um... Asuka?”

And said it.

“...You wanna kiss?”

It was no surprise that the only thing Shinji could say to that was, “Bwuh?”

Asuka couldn't help herself. “You know. Kissing.” She at least managed to keep her face straight.

“I-I...” The poor boy's face was turning bright red. He coughed nervously into his hand. “Asuka, what are you doing?”

“I'm asking if you want to kiss.”

“I know that much, but... what brought this on so suddenly?”

At that point, Asuka's face finally fell. “Damnit. It's just that... Something Misato brought up made me remember what happened last time. I basically tricked you into it and then held your nose for so long that you probably almost passed out. And in the end we both felt like shit. I... I want to try again, Shinji. I want to do our first kiss _properly_.”

Her words seemed to have stunned the boy so hard that his blush disappeared. He blinked rapidly a few times, before shyly glancing away as the redness slowly seeped back into his cheeks.

“I... I c-can't lie, Asuka,” Shinji stammered out. “I'd really like for us to do it properly as well.”

“Well, g-good!” the redhead replied. “So what are you waiting for? Scared?”

“Scared?” Shinji's head swivelled back around, and he almost glared at her for an instance before he chuckled slightly. “Yeah, I am a bit.”

“...Me too,” Asuka admitted. She shuffled sideways on her bed, bringing the two of them into closer proximity. “But I was scared last time as well.”

“Really? You?”

“Yeah.”

Asuka slowly moved her face closer to his, and she could swear that Shinji was doing the same thing. She was glad that they were sitting on the beds. Shinji's height meant that she would have had to almost stretch her neck out to reach him if they were standing.

With a few seconds to go before they would make contact, Shinji tilted his head slightly and closed his eyes, but Asuka kept hers open to stare into his face for as long as possible.

“Asuka?”

“Mm?” Her eyes focused on his rapidly approaching mouth.

“What... were you actually afraid of last time?” Shinji quietly inquired. They were scant centimetres away from each other, and he was talking now?

Millimetres. Asuka could now feel the heat emanating from Shinji's face. “Honestly? I was... scared I'd like it.”

“And... did you?”

She stifled a shiver at the feeling of his breath on her face as he spoke, and smiled. “More than I thought I would.”

Contact.

Asuka felt the back of her head explode outwards as electricity surged through her lips, through her skull, and down her spine.

At least, that was what it felt like.

When she was finally able to think straight again, Asuka realised something. Unlike their last ki- last _two_ kisses, the thing that had been missing was now there. Somewhere in that couple of seconds where her senses had fled, Shinji's left hand had come up to gently cup her cheek.

The last two times, she had taken the lead almost out of necessity. This time, however, Shinji seemed to be the one 'leading', judging by the extra physical contact between them. And so Asuka felt obligated to one-up the surprisingly bold Third Child. She brought her own left hand up and placed it on the back of his head, applying just enough pressure to dissuade any thoughts of breaking the kiss before she wanted to. She was unhappy that there was no possible way for Shinji to escalate their physical contact, but there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Time seemed to stretch out forever. Minutes, hours, days passed and they remained locked together. The contact was so gentle, yet somehow still immensely powerful. While their lips weren't feathering over each other, neither were they mashed tightly together. Somehow, both of them knew that neither wanted to do too much or too little. Even when Asuka shifted slightly on the bed to keep her balance, Shinji's head moved perfectly in sync with hers, ensuring that the most amazing-feeling thing in her life would stay unbroken.

If somebody came in and threatened to turn Unit-02 into scrap unless she stopped, Asuka would have rolled her eyes and ignored them. This was _far_ more important to her.

It took her a while to realise that both of them were holding their breath. There was no tickle on her face as air moved out of Shinji's nose and the tightness building in her chest, something that _wasn't_ being caused by the kiss, told Asuka that they would soon have to stop.

Make that _very_ soon.

Actually, make that _now before her lungs exploded._

At exactly the same instant, the two teenagers let go and pulled away slightly from each other, panting heavily -also in sync, Asuka realised- as their bodies finally got the oxygen they needed. She had to stifle the urge to take a deep breath and just plunge right back in, and the look on Shinji's face said almost the exact same thing.

“Wow...That was...” they both said, before pausing awkwardly. They opened their mouths to try and speak again.

“It was amazing.”

“It was wonderful.”

With their synchronisation finally broken, Shinji and Asuka smiled bashfully at each other as they repositioned themselves on the linked beds to put an arm around each other.

“Shinji?”

“Mm?”

Asuka paused for a moment as the boy snuggled up even closer and put his head on her shoulder.

“Next time, we're both going to have to remember to breathe,” she declared, before resting her head on his.

The kiss seemed to have driven away whatever was left of the pain in Asuka's head. She quickly fell asleep, but didn't relinquish her hold on the young man she had just shared a real first kiss with.

* * *

Late that evening, as Misato was idly checking her work email before heading home, she spotted a message with an attachment in her inbox from Ritsuko.

_While monitoring Shinji for any problems due to his extensive surgery, the camera in the room he now shares with Asuka caught something I'm sure you'd be interested in. Since it's technically not important, I've sent a copy to you and purged the original. What you do with that copy is up to you._

_Next time something like this happens, I'm not going to check it while Maya's around. My right ear's still ringing thanks to her..._

Her curiosity piqued, Misato opened the attachment.

A minute later, her secretary burst through the door, the small submachine gun in her hand sweeping rapidly across the room as its wielder searched for the source of the Commander's apparent distress. Upon seeing nothing out of place, she lowered the weapon before looking quizzically at the sheepish woman behind the desk.

“Heh, sorry,” Misato said. “Just saw something amazing and I couldn't help myself.”

Satisfied that her boss wasn't being attacked, the secretary toggled her weapon's safety back on, before giving Misato a mock-disapproving look as she left.

At least it was better working for this Commander, rather than Ikari.

* * *

It took two days for Asuka's arm to recover enough to take the healing device off. During that same time period, Shinji was taken to surgery in order to get the necessary implants for his prosthesis attached.

When he came out of surgery, there was now something akin to a cap of metal and circuitry covering the stump and extending a few centimetres up his arm; the metal appearing to have completely replaced the skin. It took several attempts for Shinji to reassure Asuka that he was in no pain at all from the procedure, but that didn't stop her from cautiously -and curiously- poking at it.

Later that day, sometime after the two female pilots left to perform a sync test, Rei returned to Shinji's room to see him idly playing the Second Child's handheld game system. Despite only having one arm, he did not appear to be having much trouble with the device. The door hissing closed caused him to jump slightly with a guilty look until he saw who had entered.

“Oh, hello Rei,” he said, closing the lid of the device. “Is the sync test over?”

Rei nodded. “Yes. Asuka is currently next door. She said to tell you that she wanted to spend a bit of time with her mother.”

“Ah. So you've come to keep me company then?”

“Actually, there was something I was hoping to ask you at a time when Asuka was not around,” the bluenette admitted as she sat down on the chair next to the bed.

“Oh?” Shinji put the game system aside and sat up straight. “What's up, Rei?”

“Um...” Rei looked away for a moment and nervously scratched her cheek. “Have there been any... problems between you and Asuka ever since you recovered from your comatose state earlier this year?” As she finished speaking, she stared directly at Shinji.

The boy raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Problems?” he repeated. “No, not that I can remember. As little as I deserve it, Asuka has been nothing but caring and considerate towards me.” He paused and blushed slightly as he ran his hand through his hair.

“Oh... that is good to hear.” She relaxed her gaze, satisfied that Shinji wasn't lying to her. While his self-deprecation made her mentally frown, she understood that it would still take time for him to recover his sense of self-worth.

Or rather, she realised with a deepening of the mental frown, to _gain_ said sense in the first place.

“What brought this on, anyway?”

“Asuka was not very happy with the results of the sync test today, despite the fact that it could easily be because she is still not fully recovered,” Rei explained. “It reminded me of how she acted last year whenever she did not 'win' a test.”

“Ah. Well, there's no need to worry about me,” Shinji replied. “Asuka and I... we've both been hurt badly in the past, so neither of us want to risk hurting the other. If there's ever a serious problem in our relationship, I'm sure we can resolve it peacefully. After all, it's not like we could find somebody else who would understand us nearly as well.”

The First Child smiled. She almost stated that she would be able to understand both of them, but she quickly realised that her brother was talking about a romantic relationship. “That is good to hear. I wish the two of you nothing but happiness.”

“Thank you, Rei.”

After a moment, Rei noticed the new addition to Shinji's right arm, uncovered by the temporary prosthesis. She leaned closer and looked curiously at the metal on his arm.

“Ah, right. My new arm should be ready in a couple of days,” Shinji said as soon as he noticed his sister's attention. He raised the stump of his arm up for her to get a closer look, and seemed unsurprised as she too poked at it.

“It is unfortunate that it is taking so long for your replacement though,” Rei replied sadly.

“Yeah, but the doctors said it was because an arm is much more complicated than a leg.”

Thinking back to her medical textbooks, the bluenette replied, “That is certainly correct. After all, a hand requires much more fine motor control than a foot.”

Shinji lifted his remaining hand up to his eyes and began to flex the wrist and fingers in various ways. “Heh, that's true,” he said after a short moment of quiet. “It's not like I was ever going to pick something up with my feet. I just hope I'll still be able to cook and play the cello properly when I have the new arm.”

“Do not worry, brother. If that does occur, you will not be the only one complaining to the person in charge.”

After attempting to stifle a chuckle with a closed fist, Shinji grinned and said, “Yeah, Asuka would be back at NERV the next day tearing a strip out of them for giving me a sub-par replacement.”

“And Misato and I would be right there with her,” Rei added with a soft smile.

As if she had sensed the uttering of her name, Asuka burst in through the door. For a moment Rei thought there was something wrong, until she noticed the size of the smile on the redhead's face.

“Hey you two,” Asuka barked. “Got some great news for you! Mama's awake!”

Shinji was out of the bed almost before Rei could process what had just been said. By the time she had arisen from her chair, the boy was already at the door.

“How is she? Can we go see her?!” he excitedly asked.

“Duh, that's why I'm here, dummy!” Asuka replied as she grabbed his hand. “Come on!”

* * *

Rei swiftly followed as the Second Child yanked the boy out of the room and into the one next door. Kyoko Langley-Soryu was still laying down in bed, but the First Child could see alertness in the woman's open eyes. There was a doctor and a nurse buzzing around the bed, but they did nothing to impede the teenagers as they got closer.

“Hello, young Ikari. Oh... and hello Ayanami,” Kyoko slowly said, cracking a weak smile. “It's nice to see you... almost again, I suppose.”

Rei bowed in greeting. “Good day, Ms. Soryu. You are looking well,” she said, apparently choosing not to question the woman's choice of words.

Kyoko scoffed good-naturedly. “Hah, no need to lie to me, girl. I'm pretty sure I look like shit.” She paused and frowned as she noticed something about the Third Child. Rather than focusing on the hand clutching that of her daughter, it was something much more unusual that caught her eye.

_"Junge, was zum Teufel ist mit deinem Arm los!?"_

Shinji recoiled instinctively at the woman's quick shout. He stammered for a bit, but gave up on translating what exactly she had yelled at him and bowed deeply as he haltingly exclaimed, _"Tu-tut mia sehr l-leit, Furau Soryu!"_

All traces of shock left Kyoko's face as she tried to work out what Shinji had just said in his partially-successful attempt to reply in her own language, but she was cautioned by the nurse against speaking so energetically, to which she huffed and rolled her eyes.

In her place, Asuka leaned sideways towards the stricken boy and said, “Um, Shinji? Not only did you apparently _not_ understand what she said, your pronunciation was... kinda bad.” She gently slapped his shoulder. “Looks like you're still not ready to graduate from my language course.”

“O-oh?” Shinji returned to an upright position.

“She was merely surprised at your injury,” Rei said in clarification. “You therefore apologised for not having both arms.”

Shinji glanced to his right, noticing that he had forgotten to reattach the temporary prosthesis after coming out of surgery earlier that day. “Oh. Um... so- er... whoops?”

“Dummy,” Asuka affectionately remarked. She turned to her mother and said, “Shinji got badly injured a while ago...”

Kyoko nodded slowly as the teenage redhead filled her in on the results of the battle against the Fourth Revenant, wincing in sympathy upon hearing about what Shinji had suffered.

The moment the door closed behind the doctor and nurse, Kyoko was speaking animatedly again, asking her own questions to fill in gaps. That progressed to the three teenagers telling her everything that had happened that year, minus a certain... personal subject. And then, when Shinji failed at hiding a yawn and was escorted back to his bed by Rei, the two Soryus switched to German and began to hesitatingly talk about something much more sensitive.

The ten years Kyoko had been gone from her daughter's life.

It took Asuka a little while to begin, and what followed was a sobering couple of hours as she sadly spoke about the many events in her life that her mother hadn't been there for. But as Kyoko quickly pointed out, she _had_ been with her, just unable to make contact. Some parts of Asuka's life were inexplicably already in her memory, such as the girl's college graduation.

“Somebody shook your hand afterwards,” the woman slowly said. “They tried to squeeze a bit too hard, and you almost crushed his hand in retaliation.”

“...Yeah,” Asuka murmured in astonishment. “I'd almost forgotten about that. But I do remember my sync ratio jumping a few points in the next test after graduation.”

Kyoko reached out and patted her daughter's shoulder. “I don't know if it would be right to say 'you're welcome', but...”

“I understand.”

Asuka belatedly realised that her mother had obviously 'seen' important events in her life. After all, when they had met in Instrumentality, _that kiss_ had played in front of their mind's eyes. She said as much out loud, to which Kyoko smirked.

“Speaking of that boy,” she said, deciding it was time to get the mood back up. “Don't think I didn't notice how you two were when you came in here.”

A dusting of scarlet coated Asuka's face. She stuttered for a moment, before crossing her arms. “If anything, it's _your_ fault, Mama. You're the one who told me just how shitty his life was.”

“Language.”

“Sorry,” Asuka replied with an abashed look. “Anyway, when Misato and I found Shinji and got him back home, I couldn't bring myself to just ignore him after everything he'd suffered through. Especially since I felt like I had been part of the problem. Misato eventually used her authority to assign me as his official caretaker, which we both knew was just a formality, but it meant I had the perfect excuse to stay at home with him.”

“And I can already see that it was time well spent,” Kyoko remarked. “But did the apple fall far enough from the tree? Is Shinji free of the taint of that arsehole father of his?”

“I'm pretty sure the only similarities Shinji has with the Bas- er... with his father are physical. I don't know anything about his mother, but I'm pretty sure Shinji inherited _her_ personality instead.”

“Kind, considerate, polite, a good cook and cello player, but nasty when angry?”

“Er... yeah,” Asuka replied, mildly surprised that her mother had listed the exact right points. “Did you know Yui Ikari?”

“I knew both Yui and Gendo. Back when she was alive and he wasn't a massive dick. I even babysat Shinji a couple of times.”

“You did?” The redhead's eyebrows shot up. “I don't remember that.”

“I guess it was much too long ago for you to remember, dear,” Kyoko replied, before she suddenly gave a bright smile. “You two were adorable together. Whenever Yui and I could find the time, we let you play with each other.”

“Wait... I think I remember something now,” Asuka said, before scrunching her eyes closed. “Did I... try and hide from Shinji behind your hair?”

A squeal of joy erupted from Kyoko's mouth. “Yes! I looked around when I felt you behind me, but then you tugged my hair back over your face.” The younger redhead covered her face in embarrassment, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face. “Oh, do you want to know a little secret, dear?”

“Um, okay?”

“Your new boyfriend is the reason I had you.” The woman laughed as her daughter almost fell off her chair. “Yep! When Yui was pregnant, I got it into my head to have a child as well. Six months after Shinji was born, you came into the world.”

“I... wow,” Asuka murmured as she steadied herself.

“And when you were born, Yui made a joke about you two getting together.” Kyoko's face lost its smile. “It's a shame she's not around to see how prophetic she was.”

Asuka couldn't stop the anxious expression that that flashed across her face, but her mother didn't seem to notice it.

“But enough about the past, what is Shinji like now?” Kyoko inquired. “I'm afraid I don't know much about him other than the impressions I got while in Unit-02 and what little I remember from when he was a toddler.”

“He's definitely better now, but he still gets nightmares unless I... um...” Asuka cut herself off, too embarrassed to explain her sleeping arrangement with the Third Child.

Unfortunately for the girl, her mother was going to insist on knowing. “Unless you what?”

“Unless... I... we...”

“Come on, dear. I'm your mother, surely you can tell me.”

“...Wesleepnextoeachother.” The words came out in a rush, as if they were trying to zoom past Kyoko's ears before they could be discerned. But she still heard them.

“Sleep next to each other, hmm?” At Asuka's mortified nod, the woman sighed. “Don't worry, Asuka. If your relationship is at the point where you're fine with something like _that_ , then I suppose I can trust Shinji to be a gentleman about the arrangement.” She paused for a moment. “He... _is_ a gentleman, right?”

Asuka nodded. “Yeah. Shinji's not doing it to try to get into my pants. Our arrangement is genuinely helping him to sleep soundly at night. And... it helps me do the same as well.”

Without warning, Kyoko grabbed her daughter's arm and yanked her towards the bed, where she could properly envelop her in a motherly embrace.

“I'm so sorry for everything I put you through, darling,” she whispered in the girl's ear.

“I don't care about that anymore, Mama,” Asuka murmured. “You're here now, and that's all that matters.”

The two redheads kept the hug going for a minute longer before breaking it. Asuka sniffled a little as she sat back down, not bothering to do anything about the tears in her eyes, but she was smiling again.

“I really should let you get some sleep,” Asuka remarked. “The doctors are probably going to start working on getting you better tomorrow.”

“Before you go, there's one last question I have about your relationship with that boy,” Kyoko said as the girl stood up. At Asuka's quizzical look, she painted a serious look on her face and asked, “Do you... know what Shinji did while you were in a coma?”

“Yeah, I do,” Asuka replied bluntly as she looked away. “I accidentally blurted out that I loved him, but Shinji refused to accept that as how I really felt until he told me about doing... _that_. He thought it would make me change my mind; _hate_ him. I went away and thought about it for a bit, and came back to tell him that I was going to let it slide because of his mental state.”

She turned to lock determined eyes on her mother. “Now, neither of us are allowed to wallow in what we did in the past. Last year was terrible for both of us; if we keep looking back, we'll never be able to move forward.”

Kyoko matched the look in Asuka's eyes. “Alright then. If you truly love that young man then I'll accept it, but I won't lie either. It's going to take a little while for _me_ to get over what Shinji did to you.”

“I understand.” Asuka leaned down to kiss her mother on the forehead, then smirked. “Is Shinji going to have problems from another redhead now?”

“Maybe not 'problems', but I _will_ be watching him closely. Now shoo; Mama needs her beauty sleep.”

“Good night, Mama,” Asuka said, stopping at the door to give a farewell wave. “I'll be next door if anything happens.”

“Good night, my darling.”

* * *

The next day came with a mild surprise for Shinji, in the form of a prosthesis that was ready to be attached and tested. It was still missing the outer covering, but the people that had been working on it wanted to make sure it functioned perfectly before sealing it up.

Plus, they needed a little extra time to create the synthetic skin in the proper colour.

When asked why this prosthesis seemed to have taken longer to finish than what had been made for the one-time Fourth Child, the luckless man Asuka queried got a shifty look for a moment before stating that NERV had been looking into researching and improving prosthetic limbs for several months already. But Shinji's injury had caused a fire to be lit under the department courtesy of a certain Commander, and progress in the last month had been much quicker than the rest of the year.

As a result, NERV had made several advances in the field, such as improving a limb's efficiency at drawing energy from the person's own body, and quieter, more natural movement. Many people didn't like to be reminded of their handicap, after all.

Somebody had also come up with the idea of adapting the neural link between a pilot and an Evangelion into a deeper, more personal form of neural connection that would, just like the Evangelions, allow an amputee to move their new limb as if it were still a natural part of them.

As somebody who already  understood how the neural link worked, Shinji would be the first to try the system.

There was a disquieted look on Asuka's face the first time she watched Shinji learn how to move an arm that looked disturbingly close to something from a mid-80's science-fiction film. That didn't stop her from remaining close to the boy, giving encouragement and support just like she had when Shinji was learning to walk again. Whether it was because of Asuka's presence, or Shinji's previous experience at moving a limb that wasn't 'his', the boy made rapid progress as the first week went on.

During that week, Asuka always tried to make sure that her mother either had company or something to occupy her time, such as reading or watching television. Even Misato offered to spend some of her spare time with Kyoko.

The girl was _incredibly_ suspicious at the smirk on her mother's face when she entered the woman's hospital room after Misato's first visit. It felt like she had just missed a joke at her own expense.

At the end of the week, it appeared that no progress had been made in improving Kyoko's health. But then the Second Child came up with a suggestion that made the attending doctor slap his forehead and mutter about thinking of it first.

Within an hour, Kyoko Langley-Soryu was prepped and placed in the healing tank.

The day afterwards, the synthetic skin for Shinji's prosthesis was finally produced and applied to the bionic limb after necessary final adjustments had been made. Now that the boy no longer looked like an obvious cyborg, Asuka found that she was no longer unconsciously flinching whenever she took the false hand in her own.

Perhaps there was something to be said for the natural look after all.

As a 'reward' for his progress, Asuka 'graciously' allowed Shinji to give her a proper, full contact hug one evening. Even though the boy was still a little nervous about such an act, he quickly accepted. While there was obviously no sense of warmth coming from his right arm, the heat she felt from the rest of his body, not to mention the full body blush she herself felt after involuntarily making a happy noise that made Shinji chuckle, more than made up for it.

That night, the two of them ended up falling asleep on Asuka's side of the bed with both of Shinji's arms wrapped around her.

* * *

It took two agonisingly long days before Asuka's mother began to improve. After that, it was like a gate had been opened. Once she started recovering, it was only half of another day passed before Kyoko's vital signs stopped improving, though the doctor in charge of her insisted on a few more hours just to be sure, to Asuka's consternation.

“I want to make a suggestion,” Kyoko remarked upon hearing about the extension to her time in the tank. “Either keep the patient sedated, or set up a television or something so they're not bored out of their damn skull while stuck in a tube.” She turned to Asuka and added, “Er, no offence, dear.”

The younger redhead simply chuckled.

“I'll, uh... make a note of that, Ms. Soryu,” the doctor replied. “Next time, we'll...” He trailed off as he looked at the screen showing a readout of the tank's systems. “...Huh, that's funny...”

Both mother and daughter narrowed their eyes. Kyoko said, “Doctor, I'm a scientist. Whenever I hear 'that's funny' in _that_ tone of voice, I immediately think something's wrong. And I happen to be _in_ the thing that's making you say that.”

The doctor appeared to not have heard her, as he confusedly rubbed the back of his head before getting in contact with a technician. Whatever he mumbled into the receiver didn't reach Kyoko's ears. Ten minutes later, said technician entered the room and checked the same readouts the doctor had.

“Huh, that's funny.”

Kyoko growled under her breath.

Eventually, the combined irritation of the two Soryus seemed to sink into the men's heads, and they got to explaining. Unlike with Shinji's time in the healing tank, not to mention that of the test subjects, the compound that was used to heal the patient had suffered a drastic loss of its biggest component: LCL.

“Was there a leak or something?” Asuka inquired.

  
“The compound is mixed elsewhere and stored in a container that connects directly to the tank.” The technician tapped on the screen. “No errors, no leaks... it's like the LCL just vanished.”

“Or got absorbed.”

The two men and Asuka all looked questioningly at Kyoko.

“Due to... security issues, I can't simply tell you everything,” the woman continued. “Put simply, I returned from Instrumentality in a depleted state. The LCL in this tank was absorbed by my body to fix that. If I'm right, my vitals should show that I'm perfectly healthy now.”

Within a minute, she was proven correct. Though the technician was hesitant, the doctor decided to let her finally get out of the healing tank. But despite supposedly being back to normal, Kyoko was firmly asked to stay a couple more days in the hospital for observation, to which she sighed loudly and acquiesced.

Asuka, having remembered what Shinji had said about his time in the tube, suggested an immediate shower to ensure all traces of the compound were gone. A light bulb seemed to have switched on behind the technician's eyes, and he immediately set off, muttering something about an addition to the tank. The doctor procured a towel and a hospital gown for Kyoko, before making his own exit.

Half an hour later, Kyoko was freshly scrubbed and back in her room. And after two days, she was finally released from the hospital.

It was surely pure coincidence that that was the same day that both Asuka Langley-Soryu and Shinji Ikari were also declared well enough to leave.

* * *

Asuka was mildly surprised by the lack of shock on Shinji's face when they entered the Katsuragi apartment and saw what Misato had resorted to while both of them had been in the hospital.

But then again, the woman had always been a lazy slob when off duty. Shinji had obviously expected something like this.

She was glad to see that there were only fast food containers laying about the kitchen; no sign of any bottles or beer cans. She was also  happy that arrangements had been made for Hikari to look after Pen-pen again. Asuka never again wanted to see what a penguin looked like after being fed cheap curry.

Shinji immediately went for the kitchen cupboard that contained the garbage bags, pulling one out and filling it with the detritus of almost a month's worth of bachelorette rubbish. Asuka simply sighed and joined him, and together they were done almost before Misato collapsed onto the couch in the living room.

Kyoko had been set up in the next apartment over. While Asuka would have loved for her to stay in the Katsuragi apartment, there was simply no space left unless her mother wanted to sleep on a spare futon in the lounge room; an option that the Soryu matron politely declined.

Their first dinner at home in a long time was almost a grand affair. Despite not having fully completed his physical therapy, with Asuka's help Shinji managed to produce a wonderful dinner, and the redhead was glad that Kyoko had readily agreed to join them.

“It's been over a decade since I last ate something that good, young man,” Kyoko remarked. “In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it was when Yui wanted to thank me for babysitting you.”

Shinji froze, a morsel of food hovering halfway between his plate and his mouth. Next to him, Asuka noticed his reaction and reached out to rub his shoulder.

“...Sorry,” Kyoko ashamedly apologised. “Asuka said you don't like to talk much about your mother.”

“Huh?” The boy looked up at the woman. “Oh! No, I was just surprised at what you said about babysitting me.”

“Yesss, tell us all about it!”

The two teenagers and Kyoko all stared at Misato, who was now grinning widely and leaning forward with her chin in her hands.

“Oh... _Gott_ ,” Shinji and Asuka both groaned at the same time, before simultaneously covering their faces with their hands.

* * *

“Hey Shinji,” Asuka said as the two of them entered her room after dinner. “Do you, um...” She blushed slightly. “Do you... wanna go back to sleeping on a futon?”

The boy's face soon matched her own as he cottoned on to what she was tacitly implying. They both looked over at her bed, still in the corner of the room against the window and covered in a thin layer of dust. It hadn't been used once since Asuka had made the decision to sleep next to Shinji to help combat their nightmares. The bed wasn't exactly huge, but both of them could comfortably fit on it.

Or _very_ comfortably fit on it, if Asuka had her way. She didn't want to give up the warm feeling she got in her chest when waking up to Shinji's face in close proximity. But she would, admittedly unhappily, do without that feeling if he didn't want to-

“I'd like that, Asuka,” Shinji said, derailing her thoughts with _that_ smile well before they could plunge off a cliff.

“Wait... r-really?” she stammered.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Futons are fine, I guess, but I know you'd much rather sleep in an actual bed. And, uh...” He turned away slightly, nervously rubbing the back of his head, but Asuka could still see the redness in his cheeks. “I... really liked our arrangement in the hospital.”

Asuka gave him a warm grin. “Well good. Guess that means we can finally get rid of these things,” she aimed a lazy kick at the futon that she used to sleep in, “and put the bed back where it belongs.”

In no time at all, the futons were ejected from the room and the bed dragged back to its rightful place. Asuka was gently held away from getting onto the bed by Shinji, as the boy decided that the bedclothes needed changing first. As soon as that was done he bowed and waved Asuka towards the bed, and she smirked at him before catapulting herself backwards onto the fresh summer quilt.

“Aaahh, so much better than those hard mattresses the hospital has,” she happily remarked. Her head shot up as she saw Shinji, old bedclothes in hand, slowly move towards the door. “Oi. Get back here, Third.”

“Hmm? What is it Asukaaaaahh!”

The moment he was in range, Asuka's hand shot out to grab him and yank him towards her. The bedclothes dropped from his arms as he threw his hands out to either side of her to arrest his fall. She grinned up at him, trying to pretend that her cheeks weren't warming up again. She leaned up so that their faces were only inches apart, and Shinji gulped nervously.

“Leave them for now.” Asuka patted the bed next to her. “Relax a bit, Shinji.”

“Oh. Um. Okay.” Shinji looked almost disappointed, and made to sit on the bed, but Asuka shook her head and told him to 'do it properly'. It took two attempts before she was satisfied with how he flopped onto the bed next to her.

“Tomorrow, I want to go to that music store and see if my violin has been repaired yet,” Asuka declared. “It's been a few weeks now, hopefully Masami's arm has healed up.”

Shinji's right arm came up, and he slowly rotated his hand in front of his face. “...I wonder if muscle memory will still work with a prosthesis,” he mumbled, almost to himself.

“Don't worry, Shinji,” Asuka replied reassuringly. “Even if you have problems, I'm positive that you'll be able to play brilliantly again soon enough.” She shuffled closer to him and grinned. “If not, I'm sure I can think of a few ways to motivate you. After all, I'd like to be able to play with you.”

Shinji smiled warmly. “That's all the motivation I need, Asuka.”

“Oh? Guess I won't have to worry about my backup plan of taking my shirt off if you play well.”

“Yeah... Wait, what?!”

Asuka's only response was to cackle at the look on Shinji's face.

* * *

The next day brought good news for Asuka. Not only had Masami's broken arm fully healed, he had managed to completely restore her violin to a pristine state. The elderly music store owner tried to give her the 'hero discount' again, and Asuka refused to pay anything but full price for his masterful work. In the end, a compromise was reached.

Asuka left the store with not only her violin, but also a brand new case and bow, as well as the sheet music books Shinji had been looking at last time. To her surprise a couple of those books were actually for a violin, and she ended up adding a few more to the bag Shinji ended up carrying out of the store.

The two of them stopped at a food court for lunch before heading home. Asuka had been keeping an eye on Shinji just in case he got hit with a stranger's memories again but to her relief the boy seemed, if anything, more cheerful than her.

After they both bought their lunch, Asuka headed for a booth table. Without needing any hints, Shinji sat right next to her, placing his tray down and smiling shyly at the redhead.

This gave the redhead a perfect chance to sneakily listen to what was playing on his SDAT player, and she began to slowly shift sideways on the booth seat, ostensibly to simply get closer to Shinji. Strangely, she couldn't hear anything at all, even when her ear was just centimetres away from the side of his head.

“What are you doing, Asuka?”

“Nothin',” Asuka innocently replied, before snagging a chip off his plate and popping it in her moth. She then reconsidered her response, and decided there was no harm in answering truthfully. “Just curious as to what song you were listening to right now.”

“Oh. Let me turn the volume back up then,” Shinji replied as he fumbled with the device.

“Wait, you had it turned down?” Asuka looked curiously at him. “Why?”

“Well, I've been slowly lowering the volume ever since you and Rei gave it back to me. It is rather rude to not respond to someone trying to get your attention, after all, even if I'm trying to... block something out.” A smile began to bloom on Shinji's face. “But after a while, I noticed that people's memories weren't getting through to me, even when the music was turned down.”

Asuka quirked an eyebrow. “You're starting to be able to tune them out automatically, you mean?”

“I guess so?” Shinji shrugged. “I still have the occasional... flash of someone's memory, but these days I usually don't have time to focus on it before it's gone.”

“That's great! Pretty soon you won't need that thing at all to go out in public again!”

“Um...” The boy scratched at the side of his mouth. “To be honest... I've had my SDAT muted ever since we left the music store.”

The other eyebrow rose up to meet its twin on Asuka's face. “And no problems? Even in this food court?” The mall wasn't exactly crowded, as it was a school day, but there were still plenty of people around.

“None that I can... well... remember.”

Asuka grinned. This seemed like the perfect time to ask an important question. “In that case, Shinji...” She stole another chip. “If you're not having problems anymore, how do you feel about... returning to school soon?”

Shinji sank deep into silent thought for several minutes, and Asuka took several more chips while she patiently waited for his response. Eventually, the boy's head lifted back up.

“How soon are you thinking?”

“Next week?” she suggested. “That gives you time to prepare yourself.”

“I suppose that will do, but...” He looked at Asuka for a moment, before nervously glancing away. After a moment, his eyes darted back to hers. “Will... will you be there too?”

Asuka paused with the last chip halfway to her mouth. “Do you _want_ me to go to school with you?”

“Y-yeah,” Shinji stammered. “To be perfectly honest, I think you're more responsible for me being able to forget about other people's memories than my SDAT. You've certainly been the only thing I've been able to think about at times.”

Asuka brought the chip up to her mouth and bit half of it off, chewing slowly while staring at Shinji. It was _incredibly_ flattering to learn that she had had such a positive impact on his thought processes. She didn't even bother to try and suppress the blush growing on her face at such an admission.

Shinji opened his mouth, possibly to prepare an apology, and Asuka popped the other half of the chip in his mouth. “Of course I'll go back to school with you,” she declared. “We're boyfriend and girlfriend now. Wherever you go, I go as well.”

“Does that apply the other way around as well?” Shinji asked as soon as he swallowed the chip.

“Are you implying that you wouldn't want to hang around me?” Asuka painted a look of mock outrage on her face.

“N-no! I didn't mean that!”

The facade cracked, and Asuka chuckled. “Oh Shinji, you're still so easy to tease.”

Shinji huffed, crossing his arms and turning his upper body away. “And you're still mean.”

Asuka planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. “No I'm not.”

“...No, you're not.”

Identical smiles remained on both of their faces all the way home.

* * *

That afternoon, Shinji discovered that his school uniforms no longer fit. Asuka quickly checked her own, and was relieved to see that she could still fit into them. Since she didn't feel like going back out again, Asuka sent a message to Misato, who replied back saying that she would take care of Shinji's uniform problems.

The next day, a delivery arrived at the Katsuragi apartment for Shinji. Several sets of uniforms, both normal and summer wear, including sports clothing. They fit perfectly, and the boy was left wondering just how Misato had managed it, before Asuka reminded him of the fact that NERV already had exact measurements for all three pilots.

Pen-pen, who had returned to the apartment the day before, took one look at Shinji in his new uniform and gave the best thumbs up that a genetically modified penguin with claws on their flippers could manage.

The rest of the week passed, with sync tests and simulation training for the female pilots, and checkups for Shinji and his prosthetic limbs. The day after getting his new uniforms, Shinji asked to be included in the tests and training once more.

Unit-01's regeneration was picking up speed. The burns and holes from its last fight were gone, and about two-thirds of its right arm had been restored. Ritsuko decided it was enough to allow a test, but she ordered the technicians in the command centre to watch out for pain signals attempting to transfer through the neural link to Shinji, and be ready to sever the connection to Unit-01's right arm.

It was an order that turned out to be needed almost immediately. The fact that his right arm was a prosthetic with no sense of touch didn't seem to matter to the boy's subconscious. As soon as Shinji managed to get the stubborn Evangelion to activate, he immediately winced and rubbed at the arm until Unit-01's own arm had its links cut. Afterwards, though he complained of a sense of 'nothingness' in his arm, Shinji managed a respectable 49% sync ratio.

Soon, much too soon for Asuka's taste, it was Sunday night and then Monday morning.

* * *

Toji sighed and leaned back dangerously far in his chair. “Just another day...”

“Yep, nothing much going to happen today,” Kensuke agreed.

“And nothin' will happen tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that.”

The spectacled boy shrugged. “Let's be honest, the only slightly interesting thing that's happened recently was us getting that new science teacher.”

“Another old geezer. At least this one doesn't harp on about what life was like before Second Impact.”

“Suzuhara!”

Toji jumped in his seat, almost tipping over completely, as Class Representative Horaki reprimanded him, before pulling her thumb and forefinger across her lips in a 'zip it' motion as the bell rang.

The teacher came in, and Hikari led the class in the usual greeting ritual.

“Good morning class,” the teacher said. “Before we get started, we have a couple of new arrivals... sort of.”

Toji and Kensuke looked inquisitively at each other before leaning forward in their seats and staring at the classroom door.

The door slid open, and a boy and girl that most of the class hadn't seen since the previous year stepped into the room, which immediately erupted into noise the moment the students recognised the newcomers.

Or perhaps it was the fact that Shinji and Asuka were holding hands.

“What...” Kensuke began.

“...the fu-”

“ _Suzuhara!!”_

“Hey everyone,” Shinji said with a small wave of his right hand. “We're back.”


	28. Chapter 28

“Why didn't you tell us you were coming back, Shinji?!”

“And that you're goin' out with the Red-... with _her?!_ ”

“Class Rep said you got mangled, but you look fine to me. Has NERV been working on some new medical technology?”

Both Asuka and Shinji had been dragged to the roof of the school by their friends the moment the bell had rung for lunch, and Rei had vanished along the way. The moment the roof access door closed behind them, Shinji was assaulted by questions from his male friends. Hikari pulled Asuka aside with a despairing look at the boys... before starting her own, much more concentrated barrage.

“How long have you two been going out now? Have you two kissed yet? How did he ask? How did you respond?”

“Whoa, there, settle down!” Asuka exclaimed, patting the air in front of her. “Okay, first of all, we've been together since not long after the fourth attack, I'm not saying anything about what we do together, and what makes you think _he_ asked _me_?”

Hikari retreated under the fire of  the Second Child's counterattack, before sticking her head up from behind her metaphorical cover and asking, “Isn't that how it normally goes? The guy asking the girl?”

Asuka rolled her eyes. She had momentarily forgotten that Hikari still had such a... traditional mindset. “Fine, then how did Suzuhara ask  _you_ ?”

A white flag waved frantically in the pigtailed girl's eyes. “...He, um... didn't. We just sort of... mutually got together when we came back after Third Impact.”

Asuka crossed her arms and smirked. “And that's pretty much what happened between Shinji and I.” She decided to at least give her poor friend  _something_ . “Although I will admit that after he almost...  _died_ , I realised I had to talk to him before I lost my chance.”

Hikari smiled widely. “So you told him how you felt?!”

“Sure, let's go with that.” There was no way Asuka was going to admit that she had _accidentally_ blurted out her true feelings in the manner that she had. “I said something, and then Shinji told me that he felt the same way. Now we're together.”

A high-pitched squeal from Hikari drew the attention of the boys over to them. Then a strange look passed over the class representative's face, and it took Asuka a moment to realise that Hikari was likely  _daydreaming_ about the situation.

“Hey! None of that!” she barked, bringing Hikari back to the present.

“Sorry, it's just so _romantic!_ And it's about time, too!”

Asuka raised an eyebrow. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh come on, Asuka. There's a reason people kept calling you two 'the married couple',” Hikari replied. “Everybody could see it, we were just waiting to see how long it would take you to figure it out.”

The redhead had no answer to that. At least, not one that wouldn't embarrass her further. She decided to become intensely interested in her lunch instead. The boys rejoined them, and Asuka noticed the serious expression on Toji's face. The athlete at least had the decency to wait until they were done eating before speaking his mind.

“Okay. First off, sorry Class Rep, but I gotta say this,” he began, before turning to Asuka. “Red, I dunno what the hell Shin-man sees in you, because I sure can't. Out of respect and friendship, I ain't gonna try and make him see the error of his ways. If you hurt him though... I don't care if you're a girl or an Eva pilot. You _will_ get what's comin' to ya.”

Asuka glared right back at Toji, and was silently impressed that he did not so much as blink. “Stooge, let me make something clear,” she replied. “Shinji and I have _literally_ been through far worse things than you can possibly imagine.” She grabbed Shinji's hand and clenched it tight. “Us two... we _fix_ each other. That's incentive enough for me. I have no intention of doing _anything_ to wreck what we have between us.”

There was a long, uneasy silence. Hikari's eyes nervously darted between her best friend and her boyfriend as they both held their stares. She had been dreading a confrontation like this ever since realising that Shinji and Asuka were now together. Eventually, Toji blinked first, leaning back and chuckling.

“Heh, I think I actually believe that,” he remarked. “Alright then. I've said my piece, so now I'll just sit back and watch.”

“So anyway!” Kensuke loudly and awkwardly interjected. “Shinji, are you allowed to talk to us about what NERV did to get you back on your feet?”

Seemingly grateful for the deflection away from Asuka, Shinji replied, “Um... it's not like I had to sign something stating that I won't reveal secrets, but I guess being a pilot probably covers that already.”

The blonde boy's face fell.

“Then again,” Shinji continued. “it's not like these are hidden weapons or anything, and Misato already trusts you and your family enough to let you live in close proximity to us.”

“That's true,” Hikari remarked, before looking pointedly at Kensuke, “And don't forget, Aida, that it's practically guaranteed that NERV knows how nosy you used to be. Yet you strangely _haven't_ been spirited away in the middle of the night to 'help them with their inquiries'.”

Kensuke shivered involuntarily. “Y-yeah, right.”

Turning back to Shinji, the class representative said, “Please tell us only what you know you can.”

Shinji chuckled slightly. “Probably more than you think,” he said before delving into talking of his prosthetic limbs. At one point, Kensuke even put his ear to  the as it moved back and forth, claiming that he could barely hear a thing compared to Toji's replacement arm.

Asuka noted that Shinji had completely skipped over the battle that had actually caused his injuries, but knew that it was for a damn good reason. Even when the two of them were alone, he seemed reluctant to even think of his fight against the Fourth Revenant. And she didn't blame him one bit.

Eventually, the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch period, and the teenagers all headed to their next class. Asuka already almost regretted coming back to school. Despite the replacement of the old man who had nattered on about pre-Second Impact life, there was still nothing in the lessons to catch her interest.

Until she saw who the teacher in their next class was.

“Well, good afternoon,” said Professor Fuyutsuki. “I certainly didn't expect to see you two in my class so soon.”

* * *

By the time the final bell of the day rang, news of Asuka and Shinji's relationship had likely spread throughout the entire school, and possibly beyond. There were a few disappointed faces, both male and female, but the majority of the students were either happy for the new couple, happy that two of their saviours were back at school, or simply unconcerned about the whole thing.

Rei caught up to Asuka and Shinji when they were about halfway home. When asked about why she had disappeared at lunch,  Rei replied that she had been talking with Professor Fuyutsuki about personal matters.

“Also,” she added. “Misato recommended that I give Aida 'the cold shoulder' for what he did, so I have been spending as little time as possible around him.”

“Well unfortunately I don't think Glasses has really noticed,” Asuka replied. “He was more interested in Shinji than his new girlfriend today anyway.”

“Wait, Kensuke has a girlfriend?” Shinji asked incredulously.

“Yeah. Didn't I tell you that already?”

“...No? Maybe?”

Asuka sighed good-naturedly. “Short version then. Kensuke tried to court your sister for a while, but she didn't realise. Some other girl came along and grabbed him by the... attention, and so he broke things off with Rei, who had to ask me what the hell happened.”

“Oh,” Shinji replied. “Um... do I need to do anything... 'brotherly' like punch him?”

“There is no need,” said Rei. “Misato has instructed me on how to act towards Aida for the next couple of weeks, so that he learns his lesson. Soon, there shall be a rumour spread through the school.”

“Ouch.” Asuka winced a little. “I almost feel sorry for him.”

“Sorry for who?”

Toji appeared behind them, but Hikari and Kensuke were nowhere to be seen.

“Never mind, Stooge. What's up?” Asuka inquired.

“Hikari wanted to know if you guys felt like hanging out with us at the mall for a little while,” Toji replied. “We haven't exactly seen much of you recently, after all.”

The three pilots looked at each other for a moment, before agreeing and following the athlete back to their friends. Sakura Suzuhara and Nozomi Horaki were also there, and Toji's little sister almost knocked Shinji over with her greeting hug. Only somebody like Asuka would have noticed the split-second flash of guilt on Shinji's face upon sighting the young girl. As the group set off towards the mall,  she pulled him back a bit.

“Remember, Shinji,” Asuka whispered. “She doesn't blame you for what happened.”

“Yeah, I know, but... I still feel sorry for her.” Shinji rubbed the back of his head. “Spending half of last year in hospital, probably alone most of that time, because of-”

“What did I say about the past?” Asuka interrupted.

“Y-yeah, sorry...”

She let the apology slide, and grinned as she spoke. “Anyway, just look at how she worships you. Hell, if she were our age, Sakura would probably have tried to go out with you. I can see it in how she looks at you.”

That got Shinji to laugh a little. “I'd hate to disappoint her, but there's only one person for me,” he replied, staring directly into Asuka's eyes.

“Oi, lovebirds!” Toji called out. Asuka suddenly realised that the two of them had fallen further back than expected, and dragged Shinji along as she trotted back to the group.

* * *

Shinji heaved a despairing and exaggerated sigh as Asuka once again filched chips from his food court meal, and she smirked inwardly. They had both gotten the exact same thing, and her own serving of chips was completely open to him. She was just waiting for the boy to retaliate. Next to her, Rei was doing her level best to be as obvious as possible in her effort to pointedly ignore Kensuke.

“Sorry, what was that?” Asuka asked as Hikari got her attention.

“Have you two been on a date yet?” the pig-tailed girl repeated.

“Oh. Um.” Asuka coughed nervously, and Shinji echoed her. “We... er... haven't exactly had the time for it, what with Shinji being in hospital for the last month.”

“You need to get on that soon then, Shin-man!” Toji remarked. “Good thing you're a pilot; I doubt you're as constrained by fiscal woes as us lowly students.”

The entire table stopped and stared at the athlete.

“What?”

“Did... Toji just use fancy words...” Asuka began.

And Shinji finished the question. “Correctly?”

“Hey!”

Kensuke leaned in. “He's right though. I'm pretty sure that, _at minimum,_ Shinji gets a hundred and fifty thousand yen a month. That's the average wage for a JASDF pilot, and you three certainly have a far more important job.”

“That... doesn't seem like much though,” Asuka remarked. “And I'm pretty damn sure I'm getting paid more than that.”

“Well that's just the base wage,” the blonde boy replied. A pen was produced and he began to write on a napkin. “Hundred and fifty thousand a month, plus up to another hundred and fifty for flight pay. Or... whatever NERV calls it. Deployment pay? Anyway, there's also pay for being deployed to dangerous zones.”

“If Angel attacks doesn't count as dangerous, there's something wrong,” Toji mused.

“Exactly. Of course, you wouldn't be deployed all day every day.” Kensuke wrote some more. “Twenty workdays a month, minus weekends, at sixteen hundred and twenty yen...”

Asuka thought faster. “Three hundred and eighty-eight thousand, eight hundred a month for hazard pay.” Shinji looked at her in astonishment, and she added, “Genius, remember?”

Kensuke looked at the numbers so far. “Hmm. This still seems pretty low for a saviour of humanity.”

“There are probably other supplements, like overtime,” Hikari said.

“What about the big one you all seem to have forgotten?” Toji asked. As everybody looked at him in confusion, he continued. “Uh... _injury_ compensation?”

Kensuke's eyes shot wide open behind his glasses. “That, and... Oh! Plus...” he mumbled as he scribbled some more. After a few minutes, he finally put the pen down. “Okay, got a rough number for an annual wage.”

He held the napkin up, and Asuka and Shinji leaned forward to see. The final number circled at the bottom was just over ¥4,750,000.

“ _That_ much?!” Shinji exclaimed.

“That _little?!”_ was Asuka's synchronised response. “I mean, you'd probably be able to buy a decent car after a year, but we're freaking _Eva pilots_!”

“Pilots who aren't constantly buying extravagant things,” Kensuke corrected. “At least I hope not. But this is just the numbers for a normal air force pilot. If I were employing you three, I'd be adding a sizeable percentage onto that.”

“I suppose,” Asuka muttered.

There was a quiet cough from Rei. “Assuming that Shinji has not bought anything 'extravagant' like I did when I practically gave him a whole new kitchen...” She thought to herself for a moment. “Shinji would have somewhere in excess of ten million yen in his bank account at this point.”

A stunned silence gripped the table. Whether it was due to the amount or how quickly Rei had calculated the figure was anybody's guess.

“Wow,” Asuka finally remarked. “That's much more reasonable.”

“And he's gonna be spending a chunk of that soon,” Toji replied. “Getting back to what I was _trying_ to say before this nerd,” he lightly slapped the back of Kensuke's head, “got us off track, Shinji can afford to take you out on a proper date, Red. The best I can do for _my_ girlfriend without saving up for ages is a ramen stand and a night at home with a rented movie.”

Hikari grabbed his hand with both of hers. “I don't care about how much money you have, Toji. The fact that it's  _you_ I'm with is all that matters.” Toji turned bright red and mumbled a thank you. She smiled at him before turning to Asuka and Shinji. “The same is true for you two. Don't worry about going to the most expensive restaurant in Japan. Love isn't about throwing money around.”

“In that case,” said Toji. “I'm gonna just borrow Shinji for a minute.”

Before the Third Child could respond, the athlete dragged him away from his seat and several meters away from the table. The rest of the teenagers looked on in curiosity as Toji began speaking to Shinji, making various gestures, and at one point placing both hands on Shinji's shoulders. Finally, Toji pointed towards Asuka, Shinji nodded, and the two boys returned to the table. Asuka noticed a certain light in the eyes of her boyfriend that had not been there before.

“Let's give them a moment alone, guys,” Toji ordered, in a tone that dared anybody to refuse. Shinji watched them leave, before turning his full attention on Asuka.

“Um... ah....”

And promptly fumbling whatever he was about to say.

Asuka put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “Whatever it is you're about to say, just take a deep breath. No rush.”

Shinji nodded, slowly inhaling and exhaling several times with his eyes closed. He opened them again.

“Asuka, would you please do me the honour of accompanying me to dinner and a movie tomorrow night?” he said, slowly and clearly.

The redhead rocked back slightly in her seat at the request. She had known that the request was incoming, but it wasn't quite what  _she_ had in mind for an enjoyable date.

“No,” she replied. As Shinji sputtered in confusion, she clarified. “Oh relax, I'm all for having a date but I have a slightly better idea.”

She told him her plan, and Shinji's hurt look morphed into a smile. “I'd be happy to do that instead, Asuka.”

“Then it's settled.” Asuka beckoned their friends back to the table. “Shinji and I are going on a date tomorrow night,” she announced. “But it won't be dinner and a movie.”

“What?!” Toji exclaimed. “But that's like... the _classic_ date! How can you turn that down, Red?!”

“Well for starters, it's smarter to do the movie first, _then_ dinner,” Asuka replied. “That way you're guaranteed to have something to talk about while eating. Secondly, I don't need to go to a restaurant for a great meal.” She wrapped an arm around Shinji. “I've got a top chef right here!”

“Oooh!” Hikari squealed. “A meal lovingly prepared at home! Toji, that's what we did on... what was it? Fourth or fifth date?”

“Fourth,” Toji replied. “Your big sister had finally stopped harassing me by then, so you decided to make the next date at your place.”

“Nice boyfriend memory, Stooge,” Asuka said with grudging admiration. “You shouldn't have to worry about forgetting anniversaries. Anyway,” she let go of Shinji and stretched her arms upward. “We should probably get going soon.”

As the group got up to leave, Asuka put her hand into her bowl of chips to grab the last-

Into her  _empty_ bowl of chips. She glared at Shinji, who looked innocently back at her and said, “What?”

A hand flashed up, a thumb rubbing at the side of Shinji's mouth.

“Well done, Third,” Asuka remarked, licking the chip salt off her thumb before grinning. “There's hope for you yet.”

* * *

When the teenagers returned to the apartment complex, Shinji got off the elevator at the sixth floor with their friends, while Asuka went up a floor and into the Katsuragi apartment to tell Misato the news.

Now she just had to deal with the repercussions.

“Misato, please stop that.”

The woman refused.

“Seriously, stop it. You're starting to creep me out now.”

The woman refused. Her grin grew even larger.

Asuka growled in frustration as she shoved herself away from the table. She was about to stomp off towards her bedroom when Misato finally deigned to speak.

“Alright, alright. Sorry, Asuka, but I'm just so happy for you two!”

The girl turned around to see a much more reasonable look on her former guardian's face.

“But I can't help wondering why you came to _me_ as opposed to, I don't know... your own mother?” Misato inquired.

“Well... no offence to Mama, but I feel like you'd be easier to talk to about this,” Asuka replied. “I mean, I'm going on a _date!_ With somebody I actually _care about_ this time!”

“But you _are_ going to tell her about the date, right?”

“Of course I will!” the redhead exclaimed. “The moment I'm done here I'm gonna head next door and-”

“Turn right back around because your mother's already here.”

Misato grinned, and Asuka's head twisted towards the lounge room. Kyoko was leaning on the door frame, arms crossed and mirroring the other adult's expression.

“M-Mama!”

“Relax, darling,” Kyoko said, before moving towards the table and sitting down next to Misato. “I'm a grown woman; I can admit that I might not have the best advice for you, considering my track record.”

“I could say the same thing,” Misato chimed in. “Maybe between the two of us we can give one whole woman's worth of decent advice.”

Asuka groaned. She had the feeling this was going to be _embarrassing_.

“Do you even know how long I've been waiting for a moment like this?” Misato continued. “To see you two kids not just be friends, but actually go out with each other?”

“...What,” the Second Child flatly replied.

Misato blushed slightly. “Okay, I'll admit it. I did just want you two to get closer and become friends because of your shared... you know...” She paused for a moment, proceeding only once Asuka nodded. “But eventually I began to imagine you two getting to know each other better. Coming together and patching up each other's wounds.”

“And instead I treated Shinji like crap,” Asuka muttered. “Bet that tore a hole through your hopes.”

Misato raised an eyebrow at that, before donning half of her teasing smile.

"Well... They were certainly listing heavily, but they refused to sink for a long time."

The girl threw a perplexed look towards the older woman, uncertain about how to digest Misato's words. Asuka's expression remained frozen like that for a few seconds of silence, until the last woman in the room spoke up encouragingly.

"You should take your own advice about forgetting, dear," Kyoko suggested, her daughter's eyes jumping straight towards her. "Enough about the past; focus on the future you two can now have."

Talk of a future with Shinji sparked thoughts in Asuka's mind, and only a few seconds later she found herself blushing madly. More dates with him. Graduating together and moving on to college; again in her case, but she would gladly take more courses just to be with Shinji and aid him. At least they would be moderately challenging.

Directly in front of Asuka but unseen as she thought ahead, the two women looked at each other, and matching grins once again grew on their faces.

_'The whole 'meeting the parents' thing is going to be a bit awkward,'_ Asuka thought to herself.  _'Would Shinji have to take me to the Eva cages and formally introduce me to Unit-01? We still haven't found out if Yui's in there...'_

“Alright, dear,” Kyoko said, her voice cutting through her daughter's musing. “Let's go over how to properly grab Shinji by the attention on your date...”

* * *

Hikari, Rei, and the three teenage boys were all at the Horaki apartment, ostensibly to do homework together, but Toji's attention was most definitely not focused on the book spread out on the table in front of him. Rei was still trying to ignore Kensuke, but she couldn't help but listen in as the boys talked about Shinji's upcoming date.

Purely out of mere curiosity, of course.

“Gettin' any jitters yet, Shin-man?” the jock asked.

“Um... not yet I think,” Shinji replied. “It is just us two going to the cinema though, so I guess I won't be stressing out much.”

Toji nodded. “True. But dates ain't all just films and food. You will eventually do something more romantic.”

“Like that picnic we had near Lake Ashi?” Hikari abruptly piped up, slightly startling Rei.

“Yeah. Shame we couldn't go to the hot springs as well though.”

“I don't think I'd ever be going there either,” Shinji murmured, before shivering slightly. At the confused looks of his fellow teenagers, he added, “It's... complicated.”

“Something to do with the Evas or the Angels?” Kensuke asked, and Shinji nodded.

“Too bad,” Toji sympathetically remarked. “Anyway, have you decided what film to see?”

Before heading home, Toji had ducked off to the cinema and grabbed a list of the films that would be playing the next night, and that list was now sitting on top of Shinji's homework. While most of the films were purely Japanese productions, there were also a few translated Western ones sprinkled in.

Those few were what currently held Shinji's notice. Asuka's general disdain for many things Japanese was well-known among their circle of friends, but nobody knew if it extended to the film industry as well.

Shinji sighed. “No. I think I'm going to have to let her decide.”

“Mm,” Kensuke hummed. “A good idea, but at the same time, not a great one.”

“Yep,” Toji added with a sage nod. “Getting the girl involved in date decisions is fine, but not if she ends up thinking you're doing it purely to satisfy her. Is there something that _you_ want to see?”

The Third Child looked at the list for a few more seconds before saying, “Yes.”

“Is that also something you believe _she_ would like? You've spent enough time with Soryu, so you should be able to get at least a little into her head.”

“...Yes.” Shinji thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “We'll end up getting home a bit after dinner time, so I'll have to cook something up for Misato, Rei and Asuka's mother before we leave.”

“You may leave that task to me, brother.”

Shinji looked up at his sister. “You don't have to, Rei. I don't mind cooking early.”

“I will not mind the task either,” Rei replied. “You should be taking the time before your first date to prepare.”

“He _is_ a guy,” Toji remarked. “All he really has to do is shower and get dressed.”

“She means mentally,” Hikari clarified, and Rei nodded assent. “And if Misato or Ms. Soryu are around, they may wish to talk to him beforehand.”

Shinji cringed slightly. “Great. One of them would tease me, while the other would promise death if anything happens to Asuka.”

Toji grinned. “No pressure, right?”

* * *

Their second day of school zoomed by, to Asuka and Shinji's anxiety-tempered relief. They immediately headed home and separated to get changed... before remembering that they both had their clothes in the same room.

And Pen-pen was currently monopolising the bathroom. Fortunately they had both managed to shower that morning, and there had been no physical activity lessons at school.

“Rei's still in her bedroom,” Shinji reported. “And... it feels weird to ask her to leave just so I can get changed.”

“And it'll be too awkward for either of us to get changed anywhere else,” Asuka muttered, to which Shinji silently agreed. A solution swiftly came to mind, however.

A minute's work with a long length of string between one end of the curtain rod and the clothes rail in her closet, along with the sheet off their bed, formed an effective temporary barrier between them.

“Smart thinking,” Shinji complimented.

“Duh, look who thought of it,” Asuka replied. She didn't need to see anything to know that there was a smile on the boy's face at that comment.

It had been the opinion of both her mother and Misato that she shouldn't bother dressing with the intent to floor Shinji. The boy was already clearly infatuated with her, so such an attempt would be overkill. Instead, Asuka was now changing into clothes that the boy had yet to see her in. Which, given that she had not had much real desire to expand her wardrobe, meant there was only a couple of items that she had been saving for something special. Their first date certainly seemed appropriate.

A mint-green cardigan went over a darker green blouse; the colours chosen to complement both her hair and each other. For a moment she was torn between a sunflower-yellow skirt and denim cut-off shorts, before she decided to be daring by picking the shorts to better show off legs sculpted by a decade of pilot training.

As she began to work her hair into a ponytail, Shinji's voice called out behind her.

“Um, Asuka? Do you have some scissors over there? I forgot to get rid of a store tag.”

The redhead located a small pair of scissors and held them out past the end of the blanket, where they were accepted with a quiet word of thanks. She heard the snipping of the metal blades, and waited for Shinji to offer them back. When a hand failed to materialise after several long seconds, Asuka shrugged and turned back to her mirror. Evidently he had decided not to bother her with such a trivial thing.

After applying just enough make-up to subtly alter the look of her face, she turned towards the blanket and announced, “Okay, I'm ready.”

“Me too,” came the response from the other side, followed by, “Oh wait. One moment...”

Asuka raised an eyebrow, but before she could give a gentle admonishment, there was a strange noise from Shinji's side which caused her eyes to widen. It sounded like...

A person's horrendous attempt at playing a trumpet with no instrument.

The sheer shock of _Shinji_ making such a spectacle meant that Asuka didn't hear the scissors snip a second time. The string and blanket collapsed, revealing the Third Child standing with a hand to his mouth making the incredibly vague shape of a trumpet.

She couldn't help herself. Asuka burst out laughing at the scene.

Shinji's hand dropped to his side, fully revealing the redness of his face. Asuka staggered over and leaned on him for support. It took a minute for the laughter to diminish to stifled chortles, and she then stood up straight and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.

“ _M-Mein Gott,_ ” she said, barely holding back a snicker. “Warn me next time you're gonna do something like that, Joshua. I could have ruptured something.”

The mortified boy huffed as he crossed his arms and turned away. “After all that effort I made to finally learn about Jericho,” he muttered.

Still chuckling, Asuka placed a hand on his shoulder and spun him back around, giving her a good look at what Shinji was now wearing.

The difference between Shinji wearing a school uniform and something 'normal' was astonishing. Now that he was clad in a powder blue poly-blend button-up shirt and denim jeans, he actually looked... hot. If Asuka hadn't still been reeling from his actions, she would have been too busy devouring him with her eyes.

Had it been their synchronisation that led to both of them picking denim? The redhead decided she didn't care.

Seeing that Shinji was still apparently upset at her reaction, Asuka sobered up as best as she could and stared him down.

“I'm not laughing at _you_ , dummy,” she said placatingly. “I'm really impressed at what you did. I just imagined you standing at the real Wall of Jericho and making that sound as it tumbled down.”

The disease spread from Patient Zero to its only other victim, causing Shinji to first chuckle, and then join Asuka in laughter as his reaction set her off once more.

* * *

Asuka felt Shinji's eyes roving over her body for almost the entire journey to the cinema, mostly lingering on her legs like she expected, and she made sure to subtly show herself off as much as she dared while they were on public transport. If it hadn't been for their linked hands, Shinji would have likely been mistaken for a pervert. The only reason Asuka was 'letting him get away with it' was because she herself was trying not to stare at him.

It was a good thing the two of them were going to be sitting in a dark theatre, otherwise Shinji would probably miss the entire film.

The cinema was moderately busy when the two teenagers arrived. Shinji's film suggestion was immediately accepted by Asuka, and she noticed how relieved he looked at that. While the girl would have obviously preferred to see it dubbed in German or at least English, at least she would be able to understand the dubbed Japanese film.

To a newcomer like Shinji, it seemed like four separate franchises had come together for a massive crossover, until Asuka informed him that they were all in the same universe. The movie they were about to see drew upon events from those previous films while being self-contained enough to not leave people scratching their heads too much. Asuka still decided to fill Shinji in as best as she could while they waited to buy tickets and snacks.

They soon reached the front of the line. The couple had come to an agreement on payment: As Shinji had asked Asuka out on this date, he would pay. But their next date would be instigated and paid for by her, no matter what it was. Knowing it was folly to argue, Shinji had simply agreed.

And had probably begun to plan their _third_ date, if the look that had crossed his face had been any indication.

After arming themselves with tickets, popcorn, and two cups of soda with more sugar content than the entire Katsuragi apartment kitchen, Asuka and Shinji went to the assigned theatre, choosing a spot in the middle of the sea of seats that gave them plenty of leg room. Before them, the giant screen was showing ads for local businesses and trailers for upcoming films.

Soon, the theatre lights began to dim, and Asuka and Shinji relaxed into their seats and began to enjoy _The Avengers_.

* * *

An amazed Asuka stepped out of the theatre, depositing her trash in the bin nearby.

“Holy. Crap.”

Right on her heels, Shinji got rid of his own rubbish and said, “That was far better than I expected.”

Asuka grinned as they linked hands and headed out of the cinema. “Wasn't it? Damn, I need to fight this urge I suddenly have to get Unit-02 repainted to match that power armour.”

“Imagine that reactor technology powering an Eva,” Shinji commented. “Sure it probably wouldn't be as powerful as an S2 engine, but it'd be a lot safer while still giving us better operating time. And that American guy's shield! All that stuff he did with it! Is it really indestructible?”

“Close enough to indestructible that it wouldn't matter to mere mortals,” Asuka replied.

“It was so satisfying to see Loki get what he deserved.”

“'Puny god',” Asuka said in a deep voice, causing both teens to chuckle. Her hand shot to her pocket. “Oh, right. Phones off silent now,” she added as she took out her phone and adjusted its sound settings. Whatever deity still existed, she thanked it for not letting a Revenant attack that day.

In fact, the entire date would have been perfect had it not been for a bump in the road while they waited for the bus.

“Hey! Soryu!”

An annoying, loud and somewhat familiar bump and his three cronies. It took Asuka a few seconds to work out why this newcomer made her fists itch.

“Kitamura,” she growled. “Here to get your ass kicked again?”

“Hardly,” Hiro Kitamura retorted. “Suzuhara's not around to save you.” He stepped closer and glanced at Shinji. “Looks like the rumours are true. You really are going out with this sorry sack of shit.”

“He's more man than _you'll_ ever be.”

The four delinquents burst out laughing, and Hiro exclaimed, “Him?! He's a scrawny little boy! I feel bad for you, having to settle for this runt, so I'm gonna do something I've never done before: give you a second chance. Drop him and come with me. You won't regret it.”

“If you value your life, piss off back to your hole and take your hobgoblins with you,” Asuka growled, before turning away. “Come on, Shinji. Let's get out of here.”

She only got a few steps away before she heard, “I don't give third chances, bitch,” as a heavy hand grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. Asuka twisted around, readying a fist to shut Hiro up, but she was forced to raise an arm to block him as he tried to backhand her across the face.

But something else was there to block the attack before it reached the redhead. Something that was now making her attacker scream in pain.

Shinji had Hiro's hand in a crushing grip, and Asuka watched as the Third Child's prosthetic fingers continued to slowly clench harder. Hiro sank to one knee, his other hand scrabbling at Shinji's unyielding grip, and called out to his friends. But they had half a dozen problems of their own.

Problems that were wearing black suits.

“Oh shit,” one of them moaned. “These guys have freakin' _bodyguards._ ”

Asuka turned to speak to Shinji, but was taken aback at the look on his face; an expression normally only seen when Unit-01 was fighting. She quickly found her voice again and spoke.

“You can let him go now, Shinji.”

The boy held his grip a little longer, before almost contemptuously letting go as a couple of Section Two agents approached the pilots.

One of them dragged Hiro off, while the other said to them, “Would you like to be taken home?”

“Yeah... fine,” Asuka replied, glaring daggers into the backs of the delinquents as they were taken away.

The two teens got into the black sedan that pulled up next to them. As soon as the car doors were closed, it pulled away from the curb and headed off down the quiet street.

“You okay, Asuka?” Shinji murmured after a few minutes. Since getting into the car, his look of hatred had been replaced by one of shame.

The redhead sighed, before looping an arm around Shinji and pulling him closer. “I'm fine,” she replied. “What about you?”

There was no reply for a minute. Eventually, the boy exhaled deeply and said, “I could have effortlessly destroyed that guy's hand. As it was I'm pretty sure I heard something break.”

“Why are you getting down about that asshole? He deserved it anyway.” Asuka quickly related to Shinji some of the various misdeeds attributed to Hiro Kitamura and his small gang that she had heard about from their friends.

“All I was trying to do was stop him from hitting you.” Shinji stared at his fist, slowly clenching and unclenching it. “My therapy's _done_. I _know_ how not to accidentally break something with this hand that I can't feel anything with. And yet... I didn't bother to hold back against that guy.”

Asuka shifted her grip on the boy, moving her hand up his right arm to a point that was still flesh and blood, and gently patted that spot. “If anything, you probably saved him from more pain. If he had actually hit me... I'd have _shredded_ the bastard.”

“Heh.” Shinji chuckled, looking up from his hand at her. “Well, you are the best pilot when it comes to melee combat.”

“And you're the second best.”

“Um... I don't think that kind of thing matters when there's only three of us.”

Asuka rolled her eyes. At least she'd managed to get his mind onto a better subject. “Just accept the compliment,  _Dödel_ .”

“Yes, Asuka.” Shinji paused for a moment. “Wait... _Dödel_? Is that going to be a pet name for me or something?”

The redhead grinned. “Well now you've just given me that idea,  _Dödel._ Got a problem with that,  _Dödel_ ?”

She had completely stopped using 'stupid' or 'idiot' to describe Shinji, especially since they were most definitely  _not_ true of him, but the boy certainly didn't seem to mind the far less harsh terms Asuka used in their stead, even when she spoke in German.

It was probably the affectionate tone she put into them.

“It probably makes me kind of a masochist, but I think I like that word.”

Yeah, definitely the tone of voice.

* * *

Upon their arrival at the Katsuragi apartment, Rei quietly greeted them and stated that Misato had gone to bed early and Kyoko had returned to her own apartment. She was rather shocked to hear of their altercation with the delinquents, but quickly calmed down once she knew that neither of them had been harmed. She then excused herself and left for her bedroom.

After what had just happened, Asuka had almost forgotten about the second part of their date until Shinji went straight to the fridge and began laying out ingredients. Asuka couldn't help but sit at the table and simply watch as Shinji swiftly got to work on preparing the meal.

Time passed in a flash, and soon there was a plate of _Kassler_ pork chops, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes sitting in front of Asuka. She just barely managed to refrain from digging in until Shinji sat down with his own serving, and then they both began to eat.

As the food slowly disappeared from their plates, the couple talked more about the film they had just seen. Asuka mentioned that there were many more stories in that universe that would be released in the coming years, and hinted that she would like to go out to see them as well.

Even though Shinji kept his face looking cheerful, Asuka would occasionally catch him glancing at his right hand throughout the meal. She wanted to reassure him with some physical contact, but the table was a bit too wide to comfortably lean across, and she was enjoying the food he had lovingly prepared too much.

Soon, both plates were empty and Asuka leaned back in her chair with a satisfied noise.

“Man that was great, Shinji,” she commented. “Thank you for such a wonderful meal.”

The smile that bloomed on the boy's face said it all, and the redhead was somewhat disappointed when Shinji got up and turned away to put the dishes in the sink, because that meant she couldn't see the smile. Before he could get started on washing up, Asuka began to drag him out of the kitchen.

“Leave it for later,” she gently ordered. “It's time to relax.”

To her relief, Shinji readily agreed. In their bedroom, the sheet went back up again as the two teenagers changed into more comfortable clothing. This time, however, there was no fanfare when they were done, but that didn't stop a smirk from crossing Asuka's face as she remembered the first time.

The redhead collapsed onto their bed, before realising that she had left her socks on.

“Ugh,” she groaned, lazily reaching towards her feet and coming well short. “I don't feel like getting back up now.”

Asuka almost leapt out of the bed when she felt a pair of hands on her feet. She sat up slightly to see Shinji kneeling at the edge of the bed, slowly and gently pulling her socks off, and she shivered a little as his left hand lingered on her right leg, gently stroking up and down her shin as he stared absent-mindedly at his own hand. Asuka just barely caught the quiet disappointed sigh Shinji emitted as he brought his right hand up to join his left.

“Shinji?” she quietly called.

The boy jerked out of his reverie. “Huh? O-oh, sorry Asuka!” he stammered, instantly letting go of her leg like it was burning him.

“I didn't say stop, _Dödel._ ”

Shinji stared dumbfounded at her for a moment, until Asuka sighed exasperatedly and shifted her leg so that it was resting on his shoulder.

“It felt... nice,” she clarified. “I was just concerned about you. You were staring at your hand again.”

“Y-yeah,” Shinji replied as he began to stroke her leg again with his left hand, while staring at his right. “But not because of what happened today... well, mostly. It's just that... like I said before, I have no feeling in this arm. The doctors say it's something they can't feasibly do yet, but that I'd be the first person to get an upgrade once they make that breakthrough. In the meantime though...”

“In the meantime, I don't want you to worry too much about it,” Asuka replied. She sat up on the edge of the bed and laced her fingers with both of Shinji's hands. “In cases like this,” she raised their linked hands for emphasis, “it's not like one hand is going to feel something vastly different to the other, so you won't really be missing out on much unless...” She was forced to stop talking as a thought came to mind that made her blush. “Er... never mind!”

Though Shinji gave her a puzzled look, she refused to speak further. Instead she chose to resume her previous position, returning her leg to Shinji's shoulder. Once more, he resumed stroking the leg, and Asuka was amazed by the gentleness in _both_ of his hands.

“Nnnggh.” And then she let out an involuntary groan as Shinji's hands moved down her leg and his thumbs began to knead the bottom of her foot.

She definitely didn't want to get up now. After several long, delicious minutes, Shinji's hands moved to her other foot and the pleasure returned anew. She wanted to stay like that forever. But it was a school night, and their date had to officially end sooner or later. Eventually Shinji let go and climbed onto the bed next to her.

“For a first date, you did a damn good job,” she complimented him as they got comfortable.

“Thank you, Asuka,” Shinji replied with a smile Asuka couldn't stop herself from matching.

“You also set the bar pretty high for my date plans.”

“U-um...”

“That's a good thing.”

* * *

The next morning, the pilot couple got up and began their morning preparations for school. While Asuka had the first shower, Shinji began cooking breakfast. When the redhead got out of the bathroom, it was to the sight of her boyfriend being almost menaced by Misato, his back pressed against the counter.

“Come on, Shinji! Tell me how it went!” the woman begged.

“I already told you, it went really well!” Shinji replied.

“I need more than that! I'm an inquisitive woman!”

“More like nosy,” Asuka remarked as she sat down at the table. “Let him go, Misato. It's too early in the morning to be harassing people. Save it for your subordinates.”

Shinji shot her a grateful look as he escaped into the bathroom.

“And here I was thinking you two _were_ my subordinates,” said Misato as she joined Asuka at the table.

“You know what I mean.”

With a deep sigh, dreading what she was sure was going to happen,  Asuka told her former guardian about last night.

A freshly washed and changed Shinji exited the bathroom a few minutes later, but froze in the doorway once he saw the massive grin on Misato's face directed right at him.

“Um...”

Asuka's head swivelled when she heard him. “Shinji! Good! Let's go, we're late for school!” She got up and threw his school bag to him.

“No we're not,” Shinji replied, just barely catching it. “There's still fifteen minuuuutttteeeess!”

The front door almost didn't open fast enough for the couple as they fled from the apartment, Asuka dragging Shinji by the hand, like they were being chased. But they weren't quick enough to escape Misato's parting words.

“Shinji! I'm going to have to get Kaji to ask you for tips!”

“Well, at least she didn't try to get a massage from you,” Asuka commented as the elevator doors closed.

Shinji wisely kept his mouth shut.


	29. Chapter 29

To Asuka's complete lack of surprise, her mother's interest in her daughter's date the previous night was just as bad as Misato's interest, if not worse. Near the end she was beginning to think that her mother was _interrogating_ her rather than merely asking questions.

Unfortunately for Shinji, he had also been subjected to the same treatment. Luring him away from Asuka with queries about cooking, Kyoko had apparently questioned the poor boy on their date for nearly fifteen solid minutes once they had been out of earshot of her.

But Asuka remembered the ten year gap in their relationship, and she decided that she could forgive any overzealousness her mother displayed. After all, there was a _lot_ of catching up to do.

It was now a couple days after her date with Shinji. Now that Kyoko Zeppelin-Soryu was back among the living, and definitely here to stay, Asuka realised she had one more reason for what she was currently doing.

“I knew it wouldn't take long for you to get back up to speed.”

She  looked up to her partner in their current activity. Shinji Ikari sat in a chair a few feet away from her in the lounge room, his cello held loosely against his body as he watched Asuka finish working the rust off of her violin skills. She smirked and gave the response she knew he was expecting.

“Of course it didn't! I'm the Great Asuka Langley-Soryu!”

In fact, even as she said it, Asuka caught Shinji mouthing along with the words. Before she could continue their little game by pretending to get angry, somebody deliberately cleared their throat behind her.

“I do hope you're not making fun of my daughter already, Mister Ikari.”

Asuka hadn't noticed her mother had sn eaked into the apartment. And  _she_ had been the one to ask Misato for another spare key to give to the woman, stating that Kyoko should be free to come and go as she pleased, considering Asuka wasn't living with her.

And now her boyfriend was about to stammer out an apology to her mother.

“It's fine, Mama,” she said just as Shinji opened his mouth. “He's not doing it as an insult, Shinji's just that in tune with me that we can do things like that to each other.”

Kyoko came around the couch and sat down next to Asuka. “Oh really?” she asked. “Only a month or so as boyfriend and girlfriend and you're already reading each other's minds?”

“No, ma'am,” Shinji nervously replied. “One of the Angels we faced last year required perfectly synchronised teamwork to kill it. Asuka and I had to train together for a whole week in order to be able to predict how we would act.” He brought a hand up to rub the back of his head. “There were some... side effects to the training,” he added with a chuckle.

“It doesn't happen _all_ the time,” Asuka clarified. “Usually only when we're focusing together on something like cooking. The training just sort of... takes over and we work like one person with four arms.”

Kyoko's eyes lit up. “Oh, so  _that's_ what I saw on my first night here. I thought it was a bit odd that you two did all that work without saying a word to each other.” She leaned forward and stared curiously at Shinji. “What was this training?”

The two teenagers glanced at each other, neither exactly happy to speak about  _that week_ and the trouble they had gone through just to kill an Angel. The woman looked between the two of them.

“You know, I could just go and ask Misato,” she warned them. “I'm sure she'd be more than happy to chat about it.”

Shinji and Asuka shuddered simultaneously at the thought of that conversation. It seemed that either way, there was going to be embarrassment in their future.

So Asuka decided to jump on the grenade.

“To defeat the Angel, we had to learn to dance. N-not with each other or anything!” she hastily added when her mother gave her a look. “Like... um... backup dancers I suppose. There was a routine we had to do in perfect time with each other.”

“And we had to do it in horrible costumes too,” Shinji mumbled.

“ _Please_ do not bring those up again,” Asuka groaned, repressing another shudder. At the time it had been funny to see Shinji in such an embarrassing getup, but having to wear the same thing herself meant that the humour had been ruined.

“Dancing together.” Kyoko stared at nothing for a moment before shrugging. “Alright, hopefully that battle was recorded, because I really want to see for myself how _dancing_ resulted in a dead Angel. But I don't believe for a minute that that was enough to instil what almost amounts to telepathy in you two.”

Once again, Shinji and Asuka glanced at each other. This time, however, Asuka could see a glint of mischief in his eyes, and she knew exactly what the Third Child was thinking.

Because she was thinking it too.

The two teenagers got up and stood next to each other, facing Kyoko, who was now looking worriedly between them. Together, they both took a deep breath and spoke.

“It wasn't just dancing,” Shinji and Asuka said at the exact same time. “We had to do _everything_ together. Eating, drinking, brushing our teeth, sleeping... About the only things we didn't have to do together was wash and go to the bathroom.”

“Wait, you slept together last year?!” Kyoko exclaimed, the moment she got her voice back after the strange display by the two pilots.

“No, not like that,” they said, blushing simultaneously. “Two separate futons next to each other, with Misato sleeping in the same room.”

“Okay.” The poor woman raised her hands in surrender. “Please stop doing that now.”

“Doing what?” they asked, barely containing their grins.

Kyoko glared at them, before an evil look crossed her face. The next words out of her mouth were in German. “ _Ihr wisst genau, wovon ich rede. Jetzt hört sofort auf damit!”_

“ _Na gut._ ”

“ _O-okay?”_

Asuka turned to Shinji, who had both taken a crucial moment longer to respond, and had said something different. “Damn, she got us,” she said.

“Sorry,” Shinji sheepishly replied.

“Guess I really am going to have to continue our lessons. You're still a bit slow on responding, I assume because you take just a little too long to translate in your head.”

“Yeah, I gue-” The boy blinked and looked past the Soryus. “Rei? How long have you been standing there for?”

The two redheads turned to look at where Rei was standing, by the archway between the lounge room and kitchen, holding an open school book in one hand.

“You stopped playing,” she said, sounding somewhat disappointed. “I was enjoying listening to your music.”

“That's probably my fault,” Kyoko admitted, before turning back to Shinji and Asuka. “I suppose I should get back to my apartment. I can't even remember why I came in here now, after the way you two messed with my head. See you at dinner time.”

With a lazy wave Kyoko left, leaving the three teenagers alone in the Katsuragi apartment.

“So...” Asuka began once the front door closed. “You enjoy listening to us, huh?”

Rei nodded. “Yes. I have listened to you two play while doing my homework these past few days. While I did notice some slight errors in your playing, Asuka, that did not concern me at all. The 'rust' you claimed to have is now gone.”

“Yep. I'm back on my feet!” Asuka picked up her violin and bow and looked at Shinji. “Think we're ready for a duo piece yet?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Asuka noticed Rei's shoulders slump slightly and turn away from them, and her ears caught what was most likely a sigh.

Shinji was there first with the question, however. “What's the matter, Rei?”

Rei glanced over her shoulder. “It is nothing,” she replied.

“Can't lie to us that easily, Wondergirl,” said Asuka, having heard the hint of sadness in her fellow pilot's voice.

“Please tell us what's wrong,” Shinji pleaded as he set aside his cello. He then stood up and walked over to his sister, concern clearly etched on his face.

“I can't. It would be... rude of me to say,” Rei quietly replied.

“After everything you've been through,” said Asuka as she joined them. “I think you've earned the right to be a little rude. We both promise that we won't hold whatever you're about to say against you.”

At an encouraging nod from Shinji, Rei took a breath and slowly said, “The problem is... you two.” She immediately flinched, as if anticipating an angry reaction.

But Asuka and Shinji simply stared in confusion at each other.

“Did... we do something to upset her?” Asuka wondered.

“I would remember if we had. She _is_ my sister,” Shinji replied. “Rei, what do you mean by that?”

Perhaps reassured by their still-calm attitudes,  Rei clarified. “You two have spent so much time with each other. Even before you awakened, brother, Asuka was always with you.”

“Well I _was_ the only one that he'd respond to,” the redhead stated.

“I know. I still cannot thank you enough for what you did for Shinji. And yet...” Rei sighed and her head drooped. “When I see you two together now, I feel... left out.”

Asuka's eyes widened in realisation. “ _Mein Gott._ You're feeling _jealous_!”

Rei looked up at the redhead. “Is that what this feeling is? Like I should be angry at you, Asuka?”

“Jealousy can make you angry, so yes. Just don't slap me or something.”

“Do not worry.” She gave Asuka a small smile. “I would not hurt you for something so petty.”

“You know you could have just talked to us earlier, Rei,” said Shinji. “We're not intentionally ignoring you.”

“I know, brother,” Rei replied. “But seeing you two together, and happy...”

The First Child was worried about coming between them, Asuka realised, and possibly damaging their relationship through what the poor girl probably thought was a petty desire. She almost voiced how stupid the idea was, before remembering just who it was in front of her.

  
A girl who had been mentally and chemically compromised for most of her existence, to the point where she had been almost blindsided by her own emotions once she had returned from Instrumentality in what amounted to a clean body and mind.

No, the only thing that was stupid about this situation was that it was impossible to enact retribution on the man responsible.

And to be fair, Asuka _had_ been rather... monopolising Shinji.

“Look, Wondergirl,” said Asuka, before pausing upon noticing that she had just gestured towards the girl with a hand still holding her violin bow. An idea formed. “Hey Rei,” she began again, idly waving the bow in front of her eyes. “...I have an idea for how you can spend some time with Shinji.”

* * *

Rei was incredibly receptive to Asuka's suggestion, but it took a little convincing to get Shinji on board with the idea, mostly because he believed he was utterly incapable of teaching somebody. Asuka countered by saying that he wouldn't be involved with teaching Rei so much as simply lending support.

After school the next week, the three pilots waved goodbye to their friends and headed for the mall. If the old store owner was surprised to see Shinji and Asuka again so soon, he didn't show it.

“Masami, I'm sure you can guess who this is,” said Asuka after exchanging greetings.

“Another hero,” Masami replied with a smile. “Thank you for your efforts in protecting us.”

Rei blushed slightly at the praise.

“Rei's feeling a bit left out after listening to Shinji and I practise. I suggested that she should learn a musical instrument, but so far she doesn't know what she wants. Since you were able to pick the right bow for Shinji just by asking _me_ some questions, I thought you could help her out too.”

“It would be my pleasure.” Masami made a sweeping gesture towards the instrument section of his store. “Miss Rei, if you would please come with me...”

Rei and Masami walked off, the man already beginning his quizzing.

“What do you think she'll pick?” Asuka inquired as she turned to Shinji, who put a hand to his chin in thought.

“I'm still not sure. Until today, the only interest Rei's really ever shown in music is listening to me play.”

“Maybe she'll pick a cello then. Follow in her brother's footsteps.”

“I hope not.” Shinji paused for a moment as he realised what he just said, and hastily added, “I mean, she should do her own thing, not simply copy someone else.”

Asuka knew right away what he was thinking about. “You're right,” she said. “Wondergirl's spent her entire life _being_ a copy. This may just be something minor in the grand scheme of things, but if she can choose her own path...”

Shinji nodded. “Then she's well on her way to becoming her own person.”

“Exactly.”

The couple fell silent as they watched Masami and Rei move among the instruments. Several times they would stop as Masami pointed  her towards a possible option, only for her to spend a minute staring at it before shaking her head.

In the end, it took nearly half an hour for Rei to make a decision. For a moment Asuka believed that it was a violin, before noticing that it was rather larger than her own instrument.

“A viola, huh?” she remarked as Rei gingerly placed it on the store counter.

“Yes,” the First Child replied. “I wanted something that would back your instruments well, but at the same time I did not want to copy you two outright.” She looked down at her choice and smiled. “It ended up being either this or the double bass, and that seemed a bit too much for me.”

Shinji and Asuka glanced at each other and grinned. They both reached for their wallets, and their NERV cards, at the same time.

“I'm gonna stop any argument we're about to have right here,” said Asuka. “We'll split the cost.”

“Agreed,” Shinji replied.

“Wait,” Rei cut in. “It is alright. I will be playing the instrument, so I should pay for it.”

“Consider this a late birthday present then,” Asuka stated. “Or... an early one.” She paused for a moment. “Hang on... when _is_ your birthday?”

The only response  the concerned First Child gave was to glance quickly in Masami's direction before turning away from them.

Asuka buried her face in her hands. “Oh. _Scheiße_.”

* * *

“I have made a decision.”

Shinji and Asuka stopped walking and turned around. Rei was standing a couple of meters away, looking down at her new acquisition.

The three Evangelion pilots had remained quiet on their way home until the First Child had just spoken up, a few minutes after they got off the bus and were walking back to the apartment.

“Decision? What do you mean?” queried Shinji.

“About my birthday,” Rei replied.

Asuka hissed. “I shouldn't have brought it up. It was just... for a moment I'd forgotten about your... circumstances.”

Rei smiled. “The fact that you forgot I was once not fully human is nothing to apologise for. It makes me happy that you  think of me as just another person.” Her eyes jumped between her fellow pilots. “The day that will be my birthday is the day I returned from Instrumentality. The day I... became human.”

“Damn,” Asuka remarked, a grin softening the harshness of the word. “Guess we won't be having a birthday party for you for a while.”

“It is alright. I am patient enough to wait.” Rei looked back down at her viola. “And patient enough to learn how to play this. It will take quite a while before I am able to match your skill, brother.”

“Does our school still have a music club?” Shinji wondered. “They might be able to help you improve.”

“Perhaps, but I should first concentrate on becoming proficient.”

“If we weren't pilots, we could have probably arranged for a tutor right away,” Asuka remarked. “But they would have to go through a ton of security checks just to be considered.”

“I am confident you will do well in teaching me what you can, Asuka.”

Since violas were very similar to violins, Asuka had offered herself as something of a mentor. Shinji was now carrying a bag of lesson books that he had bought for Rei, once again refusing to let her pay. The trio resumed walking.

“We need to mark your birthday on a calendar, Rei,” Shinji spoke up. “What was the date of your return?”

“Sixth of March,” Asuka replied instantly. “Same day the First Revenant attacked.”

“Oh... I see...”

A sober mood came over the teenagers with the mention of the Revenants.

“There are only three left,” Rei sombrely said. “But the last two attacked at the same time.”

“It'd really suck if we had to face all three of them.” Asuka immediately slapped her face and groaned heavily once she realised what she had just said. “I just jinxed us, didn't I?”

“Um... I hope not.”

“It matters not how they attack us,” Rei stated. “We must defeat them, therefore we shall.”

Asuka thought for a moment. “What would actually happen if we lost? Not that I'm saying we don't need to fight, but... We're not protecting something that can end the world if the enemy reaches it anymore.” She stared hard at Rei. “Why _does_ Adam want to win? What would that gain him?”

The First Child looked away pensively. “Adam... already has what he needs. He is simply doing this out of a sense of fair play.”

“Fair play my ass,” Asuka retorted. “What's to stop Adam from doing... whatever he's planning once he loses?”

Rei had no answer for her, and that sent a chill running down the spines of all three teenagers.

The redhead sighed. “Just as I thought. Well, since you know what he needs, can you at least tell us _what_ he's planning?”

For that question, there was an answer. Adam was planning to follow the original directive of the Angels, who had been drawn towards Tokyo-3 by Lilith. They were driven by the desire to merge with their progenitor, but Adam and Lilith were similar enough beings that the 'signal' given off by the imprisoned mother of humanity fooled them.

But only one Angel made it to Terminal Dogma and discovered the truth.

Shinji brought a hand up to his mouth to stifle a gasp. “Kaworu... when he reached Terminal Dogma, he was shocked by what was there and then let me... kill him.” He winced, evidently recalling that memory. After a moment he added, “If it had been Adam there... would he have done the same thing?”

“Only one person could answer that, brother,” Rei replied. “The question is irrelevant now anyway. He could still have initiated an Impact by coming into contact with Lilith, but chose not to.”

Asuka blinked. “What would have happened if an Angel merged with Lilith?”

“I am... not sure. An Angel that merged with Adam would have spawned more of its type, but-”

She couldn't help herself. Asuka interrupted the girl with, “So if Adam had been around, there was a chance that Earth would have ended up inhabited by gigantic flying laser polyhedra?”

“...Perhaps,” said Rei, before resuming what she had been trying to say. “But I do not know what an Angel/Lilith fusion would create. Fusing Adam with Lilith only resulted in-” She stopped and looked guiltily at Shinji, before mumbling an apology and continuing down the street.

Asuka grasped Shinji's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He looked at her and gave a weak but brave smile. As the two followed Rei, Asuka said to nobody in particular, “Well... let's just hope we're not around to see whatever Adam has planned.”

* * *

It seemed as if Rei had inherited the same gift for music as Shinji. A week passed, full of school work and tests at NERV, but the girl had proven to be a very quick study, blowing through the lesson books so fast she almost left scorch marks on them.

Asuka tried to spend as much time as possible playing duo pieces with Shinji, when Rei was either not home or simply not playing. During those occasions when Rei wasn't practising, she still paid close attention to her fellow pilots even while finishing homework. It seemed that no matter what song they played, Asuka and Shinji were always in perfect time; never going too fast or too slow.

Rei spent the entire Sunday of that week studying the more advanced lesson books, to the point where it took the combined efforts of the other two pilots just to convince the driven girl to take a break for food. The next day at school, Rei was accepted into the music club.

Asuka breathed a tiny sigh of relief upon hearing the news, as it meant she would get a bit more time to 'make beautiful music with Shinji', as Misato stubbornly insisted on calling it. Privately, Asuka was a bit happy that the woman was so busy, as she didn't think she could survive the amount of teasing possible from a stay-at-home... former guardian. But she would weather an eternity of salacious comments as long as Shinji was there to take them with her.

Even at NERV, Misato would find a way to subtly dig at Asuka or Shinji during their tests, while still maintaining her professional attitude. And all Asuka could do was glare at the woman.

Just like she was doing right now.

“Asuka, your score is slipping a bit,” Ritsuko warned.

Breaking the glare off with a huff, the Second Child went back to concentrating on the test. Despite the passing of over a month since the last Revenant attack, NERV was remaining alert for the next incursion. Training had been stepped up yet again, and the pilots were constantly encouraged to keep improving their scores during the sync tests.

The testing soon came to an end. Asuka and Rei were at 74% and 72% respectively, while Shinji was rapidly closing the gap, ending the test at 67%.

It still felt a little strange for Asuka that she was consistently the top pilot, yet she was more concerned with how the previous holder of that title was doing. Only a year ago she would have been shoving her superiority in the poor boy's face for hours after each test, despite how little the tests truly mattered when it came to actual combat; there was a big difference between fighting to stay alive and just sitting in a tin can trying not to fall asleep.

With no more to do at NERV for the time being, the three pilots headed home courtesy of a Section Two vehicle. As soon as they entered the apartment, they were accosted by an angrily gesticulating penguin holding a phone.

“Wark!”

“Whoa, down boy!” said Asuka as she stepped over Pen-pen.

Shinji patted the air in a reassuring gesture. “C-calm down, I'm sure we can sort out whatever's wrong,” he added as he too got past the penguin, whose flailing and squawking increased at the apparent dismissal of his problem.

Instead of merely following suit, Rei got down on one knee to put her face level with Pen-pen's and said, “It is alright, I shall help you.”

The penguin huffed and glared over his shoulder at the other two teenagers. Asuka suddenly felt like she was being accused of a heinous crime, until Pen-pen sullenly broke eye contact and waddled into the lounge room followed by Rei.

“What the hell was that all about?” asked Asuka in a low voice, deciding not to antagonise their strange housemate any further.

“I'm not really sure,” Shinji admitted. “I can't understand Pen-pen well enough, especially when he talks that fast. I caught something about somebody being a... moron?”

Asuka folded her arms and stared sceptically at him.“You mean to say that you can actually speak Penguin, but still have trouble with German?”

The Third Child hesitantly scratched the back of his head. “Um... it's more like I've just picked up a few obvious things, like when he's hungry. Speaking of which...” He moved to the fridge and began to prepare lunch.

Her own stomach growling at the thought of a meal after a sync test, Asuka dismissed the strange event with a wave of a hand in the direction of Pen-pen's exit before sitting down at the table and watching Shinji work his culinary magic.

And then a memory kicked her in the back of the head.

Shinji, nervously handing her a bento box as if he was afraid she would smack him with it, then turning and attempting to flee out of the classroom, before tripping over and hitting the ground face first.

A bento box that, when emptied of its unique meal, she'd kept in her desk for the rest of that year as a reminder, and was now lurking somewhere in her room after its retrieval.

“Shinji?”

Now seemed as good a time as any to finally lay the mystery to rest.

“Yeah?” The boy glanced over his shoulder for a second before returning his eyes to the cutting board.

“How did you do that one lunch you gave me last year?”

“Um, which one? I did our lunches pretty much every day.”

Asuka narrowed her eyes at Shinji's back. “I'll make it easy for you. The _German_ one.”

He paused in his preparations and twisted his upper body to look at her with a worried expression. “Wasn't... that the one you threw out?”

Just as she'd thought, Shinji believed that Asuka hadn't eaten the one special meal he'd created especially for her. She sighed.

“I ate the whole thing. Practically licked the box clean.”

“R-really?!” The boy spun fully around with wide-eyed astonishment.

“Yes. But what I wanna know is how you got the idea for that meal.”

Shinji looked away thoughtfully. “I... don't really know. I thought about making you a German meal one day, bought some suitable ingredients, and just... had a go at it.”

“'Had a go at it'.” Asuka jumped out of her seat and moved around the table to stand directly in front of Shinji with her arms crossed. “That meal was one of my fondest childhood memories. My _mother_ made it for me.”

She leaned forward into his personal space, and he leaned back as best as he could while stuck against the kitchen counter. Her voice went low and dangerous. “I spent _ages_ trying to find somewhere I could get that meal done how I remembered it, and you come along and get it perfect just like that?!”

Shinji raised his hands in an attempt at appeasement. “I-I-I don't k-know what you w-want me to say, Asuka!”

“Then say nothing.”

Asuka's arms unfolded and her hands shot out, gripping tightly onto Shinji's own hands and interlacing their fingers. She forced their arms out and away from between their bodies, struggling only slightly with his prosthetic arm, and leaned so close their noses bumped into each other.

“Because I want to say something...”

She kissed him; a feather-light touch of their lips.

“...Thank you, Shinji.”

With those words, or perhaps with that kiss, Asuka felt the rising tension fade out of Shinji's body and grinned. “Had you going for a sec there, didn't I?”

“K-kind of,” the boy sheepishly admitted, before clearing his throat and continuing. “But when you got really close to me, I saw that look in your eyes. The one that says you're enjoying this way too much.”

Asuka blinked innocently. “Oh? Didn't know we'd spent so much time staring into each other's eyes already.”

Shinji chuckled and turned his head to look at the kitchen counter. Seeing that he wanted to get back to his food preparation, Asuka reluctantly released her grip on his hands and went back to her seat.

“You know,” she remarked as soon as she sat down, “I'm going to have to get you to make that meal again. Not just for me, but for my mother as well.” She hesitated for a moment. “And... the others, I _guess_.”

Shinji hummed in agreement. “I just hope I can remember what I did.”

“Oh, don't worry. Mama and I will soon tell you if you got it wrong.”

At that point, Rei returned to the kitchen to put the cordless phone back on the hook, while a much more sedate Pen-pen went into his fridge with a newspaper.

“So... what was that all about?” Asuka asked of Rei.

“Apparently one of the companies he orders fish from had replaced their phone staff,” the bluenette explained. “As a result, nobody could understand him and thought it was a prank call.”

“But you can understand him just fine.”

Rei nodded. “Of course.”

“But... _how?!_ ” The redhead threw her arms up in disbelief. “All he says is 'wark'! That could mean anything from 'I'm hungry' to 'Who crashed a ship into my iceberg?'!”

Pen-pen's fridge opened, and a beady eye peeked around the edge to glance at Asuka before retreating back inside. Though the bird didn't exactly have eyebrows, Asuka could swear that one was raised anyway. When she looked back at Rei, she was surprised to see that the girl was attempting to stifle a giggle.

“Asuka, you just called yourself... something rather unflattering.”

With a groan, Asuka let her head thump onto the dining table. “Do I want to know what I said?” she muttered.

“...It would perhaps be best for you to remain ignorant.”

* * *

It didn't take long for Kyoko to find out about the young upstart apparently attempting to knock her off her German  cuisine throne. The next day after school, Shinji was almost traumatised by another interrogation before being challenged to a cook-off.

Since Shinji would have had something of an advantage thanks to Rei's birthday present, it was decided that both he and Kyoko would use the same kitchen. But because they were each going to be cooking for five people, they wouldn't be able to use it at the same time; instead they would be taking it in turns.

The two 'contestants' hadn't even gone out for ingredients before poor Asuka began to feel divided about her loyalties. Shinji had proven time and again that he could practically create works of culinary art, and 'winning' would certainly give him a much-needed boost of confidence... but there was a reason phrases such as 'just like mum used to make' existed. And in this case she hadn't had any of mum's cooking in a decade.

Kyoko knew her daughter well though, and at least partially solved the problem by bringing the other members of the Katsuragi household in as extra judges. Misato readily agreed to it after arranging for a couple of early nights off from her busy schedule. The offer also extended to Pen-pen, who felt brave enough to accept since Misato the Culinary Catastrophe wasn't involved in any part of the cooking process.

Rei diplomatically left that last part out of the translation.

Tuesday came around, and Kyoko took her turn that night. Everybody was shooed out of the kitchen except Asuka, who was kept back so that the two redheads could chat about Shinji. Unlike last time, the conversation was much more relaxed, as Kyoko began gently inquiring about the boy's condition after Third Impact. As Asuka  told the story, it dawned on her just how far back she had really begun to fall for the Third Child.

Before Third Impact, it was at best a bit of infatuation mixed with simply trying to get Shinji to pay attention to her. Anybody looking at their interactions back then would have considered it a love-hate relationship, and Asuka would have hastily clarified that as 'I love to hate him'. She still occasionally felt guilty about her actions back then, and she said as much to her mother, but Kyoko simply smiled and said that it sounded like the girl had more than made up for her past behaviour.

Their conversation came to an end at almost the same time the food preparation did. Asuka brought out the dishes and cutlery while Kyoko applied the finishing touches, and the Katsuragi household was soon sitting around the table.

Misato was surprisingly the last person to finish their meal. It had been agreed beforehand, or more precisely Asuka had decided and everybody else acquiesced, that rather than immediately saying what they thought, the judges would hold all comments until after Shinji's turn.

But despite her efforts to keep Shinji's spirits up for his attempt, Asuka caught the look of trepidation on his face when they got into bed that night.

“Hey, you'll do great,” she reassured Shinji as she slipped an arm around him.

Shinji hummed absently, before looking into Asuka's eyes and smiling. “Yeah. I don't think I'll be able to beat a native, but I can at least do my best.”

“That's what I want to hear!”

The next evening after school, the Katsuragi apartment's kitchen was almost an exact duplicate of the day before, only with Shinji in Kyoko's place as they talked about her mother. Knowing the boy like she did, Asuka could easily detect the occasional flicker of darkness on his face, presumably caused by Shinji remembering his own mother.

The mother who had consciously chosen to essentially kill herself in front of her own child for some insane reason.

The topic of conversation was swiftly changed to something much lighter, and a smile was back on Shinji's face by the time the food was ready. Once again, everybody crowded around the dining table and dug in. This time, Asuka was last to finish.

“Alright,” said Misato once the dishes were cleared away. “We've had two wonderful meals over two nights, and now it's time for us to decide who did it better. I'll go first, if there are no objections?”

“Can I say something first?” asked Shinji. Misato nodded, and he addressed the entire table. “I won't be unhappy if you liked Ms. Soryu's dishes more than mine. Asuka has said several times that I give apologies when one isn't needed, and there isn't a need for one tonight. After all, it's just dinner.”

Silence reigned for a few moments, before Misato cleared her throat. “I know you guys tend to think my taste buds have been killed off, but I believe that ever since he came into my life, Shinji's meals have done a good job of resurrecting them. He cooks from the heart and that shows; there hasn't been a single meal of his that I didn't like.”

She nervously scratched at the side of her mouth. “That being said... on this occasion I'm afraid I have to say that my vote goes to Kyoko. It's hard to compete with someone who grew up with foreign cuisine, but you gave it your best shot and came a very close second, Shinji.”

The boy nodded and smiled as Misato took her seat, not a hint of unhappiness on his face.

Rei was next. While she didn't have as much experience with Shinji's cooking as Misato, she still cast her vote for her brother.

“Wark.”

Pen-Pen expressed his regret that he couldn't tell the difference between either chef's cooking. Somehow, it took Rei close to half a minute to fully translate, and Asuka couldn't help but question that.

“Wait, you got all that from one 'wark'?!”

Three people at the table stared at her in confusion. Asuka blinked, before letting out a huge sigh and slapping a hand over her face. “Alright, what did I just say?”

“You said 'How's your granny off for soap?',” Misato replied. “Penguin is an... interesting language. All about inflection and tone.”

Asuka muttered something in German, but unfortunately for her most of the people in the room understood it, and she got a warning look from Kyoko.

With nothing left to delay the inevitable, Asuka now had to make a decision. With Pen-Pen's non-vote, it was now a tie and she was back to having to question her loyalties again. But... this was a relatively minor event. It wasn't as if either Kyoko or Shinji would gain anything besides a bit of recognition or bragging rights... as if Shinji were the type to boast.

Time to bite the bullet.

“Shinji, you did a wonderful job again,” she began. “Even without my help, you turned out a stunning German meal.” Asuka turned to her mother. “Mama, it's been _so long_ since I last ate anything you made for me, but your skill has obviously not declined during... your time away.”

Her view shifted to rest somewhere between the two contestants. “You both gave it your all, and I'm sad that I can only pick one of you.” Her blue eyes moved to look into Shinji's cobalt gaze, before moving again to stare into the sapphires that she had inherited.

“...I know you said not to, but I'm sorry Shinji,” she said with a sigh. “Maybe it's just the years of separation talking, but I enjoyed Mama's meal just a little bit better than yours.”

To her relief, there was no sign of hurt or betrayal on Shinji's face, just a simple smile full of understanding and acceptance.

And with that the first Soryu/Ikari Cook-Off, as Misato later called it, came to an end.

But even though the contest was over, Kyoko wasn't done. Just as Shinji was about to retire to the lounge, he was once again dragged away by the woman right out the door. Nervous looks crossed the faces of most of the spectators, but Asuka remained confident that nothing bad was going to happen to Shinji.

Or at the very least, nothing permanent.

It took nearly two hours for Shinji and Kyoko to return, and when they did the surprise that the boy brought with him ended up putting Misato into a food coma. The rest of the Black Forest cake disappeared almost as fast into the stomachs of everybody else.

Being a school night, Kyoko departed not long after guiding Misato to her room, and the teenagers soon made their way to their own beds.

* * *

“So, what did my mum want to talk to you about this time?” Asuka inquired once she and Shinji were in her bed.

“Your mother said I had promise, and took me through a couple of her German recipes,” he replied. “I'm not really sure why though...”

The girl chuckled and rolled her eyes, unseen in the dark. “You dummy,” she whispered, throwing an arm over his chest.

They both soon fell asleep, but it was only a few hours before Asuka was pulled from her slumber by the quivering of the boy next to her. She swiftly sat up and began to gently shake him by the shoulders, calling his name in an attempt to wake him up. It took a few seconds before Shinji's eyes shot open and began casting about the room as if searching for something. Asuka gingerly placed a hand on his cheek.

“Shinji, what's wrong? A nightmare?” She did her best to disguise her nervousness. The biggest reason for them sleeping together was to help the other fight off the demons that attacked in their sleep. If that was starting to not work anymore for him...

“No, not a nightmare,” Shinji mumbled as his body ceased its shivering. “More like... a bad memory.”

Asuka breathed a tiny sigh of relief. “Well since I'm awake too, you want to talk about it?”

The boy turned his head away to gaze out through the gap in the curtains. He took several long, slow, and deep breaths before speaking. “I remembered... when you showed up on the beach.”

The redhead stiffened for a moment, before relaxing and placing a hand on Shinji's chest. She murmured, “That's in the past, it-”

“Doesn't matter now, I know,” Shinji interrupted. “But... I feel like I _should_ tell you.”

Asuka sighed. “I'd be lying if I said that I never cared about what happened back then,” she admitted. “At one point I was completely ready to try and slap you out of your catatonia to try and get an answer out of you.”

Shinji chuckled humourlessly. “Wonder if that would have worked...”

“Just remember, you don't _have_ to say a word about it now. I know now that you had just gone through a terrible experience. You probably didn't even know what you were doing to me.”

“I did.”

The flat and sudden response was like a broken rail in front of Asuka's train of thought. “W-what?”

“I knew exactly what I was doing,” Shinji reiterated, his voice a dull monotone. “I saw you on the beach, with no way of knowing how you even got there. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me, taunting me with your image. I remember thinking over and over again, 'she's just a doll'. But then you touched my face, and I suddenly realised that you were _real_.”

As if mirroring that far off event, Asuka laid a hand against his cheek and smiled sadly. “It was the only thing I could do at the time to apologise for my rancid behaviour towards you. There was so much pain and confusion back then.”

Shinji brought up a hand to cup the one on his cheek, but then the smile starting to grow on his face was cut off. “But then... you said something... horrible.”

Asuka frowned, trying to remember what she had said. All she could recall was feeling...

“You called me 'disgusting'.”

_'Ugh, I feel so...'_ Asuka's eyes widened in shock. “ _Oh Gott_ ,” she whispered. Now she knew just why Shinji had fled from her at the beach. At possibly his most vulnerable moment she had, purely by accident, crushed the small glimmer of hope that he had begun to build. “Oh god, I'm so sorry, Shinji!”

It was probably the tightest hug Asuka had ever given Shinji as she choked out her explanation of that moment on the beach, that the pain due to her injuries and somebody sitting on her stomach had made her feel 'disgusting'.

A hand placed itself on her back and began to stiffly caress it. She wiped away the tears that had sprung forth and looked at Shinji, who was staring upwards at the ceiling.

“Evangelions seem to bring a rather nasty curse with them,” he remarked after a few minutes, smiling brittlely. “They make anybody connected with them incapable of communicating like rational people. One word had me hiding from you for days, and it turns out that you weren't even talking about me!”

“That... couldn't have been it though, surely,” Asuka hesitantly replied.

Shinji's voice turned sarcastic. “Oh, of course not. My mind decided the best thing to do, instead of working out what had happened, would be to traumatise me with your image telling me just how pathetic I was.” He sighed. “I tried to shut it out, but it's impossible to get away from a voice that's inside your own head. You may as well try to stop breathing.”

“So when you saw me in the pharmacy, you thought I was just another trick.”

The boy nodded. “Yeah. And I thought I had just gotten away from one only to run into another.”

Asuka rolled onto her back, dragging Shinji with her so that his head was resting on her shoulder. “And then I didn't see you until I found you unconscious near the Geofront crater.”

Shinji shifted his head slightly in order to speak clearly. “I... don't think I remember anything about that bit.”

“No surprise, you had a pretty nasty head wound and a broken hand. A doctor later said that you'd obviously punched something.”

“...No, still don't recall anything,” Shinji said after a moment of hard thought.

“And it doesn't matter now anyway,” Asuka declared. “Screw the past, think about the future, Shinji.”

Shinji burrowed into her shoulder. The room was quiet for a while before he quietly said, “The future holds more Revenants, you know.”

“...Okay screw that too, for now. Think about the present instead.”

Asuka could literally feel the smile forming on his face.

“The present feels... warm...”

“And comfortable.”

“'n' comf't'ble...”

This time, when the two teens fell asleep, their slumber remained uninterrupted until morning.

...When the Angel alarm rudely brought them back to reality.

* * *

Asuka managed to keep her cursing to a minimum this time, possibly due to the presence of her mother in the front passenger seat, but Kyoko was muttering enough German expletives for the both of them after requesting to join Misato and the pilots on their way to NERV.

And deep inside, the Second Child was just a _little_ giddy at the fact that she was about to defeat a Revenant while her mother was watching.

The moment Misato's car came to a final halt inside NERV, the pilots were out and running to the changing rooms. There was apparently still half an hour before the target came ashore, but that was no reason to dawdle. In a combat situation like this, any wasted time could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

But as Asuka and Rei headed out of the female change room, there was no sign of Shinji, who normally was the fastest to get into a plugsuit. After waving the other girl off, Asuka moved over to the door leading to the male change room. She knocked and called the boy's name, and when there was no response she sneaked in once the corridor was empty.

Inside, Shinji was slumped on a bench. His plugsuit was only half on, the top half bunched up at the waist as he stared absently at his right hand. Asuka sat down next to him and cleared her throat.

“We're fighting another one, huh?” Shinji mumbled before she could speak, not looking away from his hand.

“...One or more,” Asuka replied. “There's only three left, and two of them attacked last time.”

“Since the universe hates us, it'll be all three. I'd put money on it if the fate of the world wasn't at stake.”

“And I wouldn't take that bet anyway. Now come on.” Asuka got to her feet and held a hand out to Shinji. “Misato's expecting us.”

Shinji's eyes shifted slightly, looking past his hand to the carefully manicured one in front of him. His hand flopped to his side as he sighed and leaned back, bumping his head against the locker he was leaning against.

“Hope I don't lose anything this time,” he sardonically remarked.

“You're not gonna even get a scratch,” Asuka declared, forming her outstretched hand into a fist. “Wondergirl and I will eviscerate anything that threatens you. And if you do get hurt again I'm gonna dive into the ocean, go find Adam and rip his Angelic balls off. _Nobody_ hurts my boyfriend.”

The corner of Shinji's mouth quirked upwards. “Nobody except you at least.”

“No, not even me,” the redhead corrected. “We're past hurting each other. Let's go hurt something that _actually_ threatens us.”

The other corner of Shinji's mouth joined its twin, and he reached out with his right hand to latch onto Asuka's fist. With only a little effort she jerked him up to his feet and the two smiled at each other.

And then Shinji's unsecured plugsuit began to slip down his body.

Shinji let out a rather girlish shriek and his hands dove down to grab the suit. Asuka's eyes were drawn downward by the movement before her brain could process what was happening, but it only took a fraction of a second for her face to set itself on fire once it caught up. She immediately whirled around and become intensely interested in an invisible spot on the wall in front of her.

Behind her, Asuka heard the shuffling of a rubber suit, followed by the tell-tale hiss of air as the plugsuit conformed to its wearer's body. She didn't turn back around until she heard Shinji begin to walk towards the door.

There was nothing that could be done for the twin looks of embarrassment on their faces.

* * *

“Alright,” Misato said as she addressed the pilots through the view-screen. “You know the drill by now. Engage and destroy the target or targets. We don't have the Lance we 'liberated' earlier anymore, but our engineers have managed to put something together.”

Ritsuko took over. “We may not have the Lance, but we haven't let its remains go to waste. Asuka, your launcher now has spikes tipped with the shards we recovered after the last battle. We don't know if they'll have completely the same effect, but the launching system has been overclocked to fire them much faster.

“Rei, since we have two front-line Evas this time, you'll be deployed as a sniper for this op. There's a Positron Rifle waiting for you topside, but you'll also have a railgun modified to fire Lance shards. Both of them have their own power cables and are already plugged in, so you can switch as needed.”

The scientist looked apologetically towards the Third Child's screen. “Sorry, Shinji, but the best we managed for you was several magazines of Lance-tipped ammo for your Pallet Rifle. There weren't enough large pieces to give you something nice too.”

“ _It's okay,”_ Shinji replied. _“Asuka and Rei can use them better than I could anyway.”_

Asuka cut in.  _“Leave the heavy lifting to us, watch our backs, and we'll keep you covered, Shinji.”_

The boy nodded, but one of the technicians interrupted what he was about to say.

“Commander, sensors are detecting an incredibly strong AT-Field emanating from the target,” Maya reported. “Much more powerful than any of the previous Revenants.”

“I believe we're facing multiple targets again,” Ritsuko mused, before reaching past her protégé and typing out a query to the MAGI. A moment later, she got the response she wasn't looking forward to. “Looks like the MAGI agree...”

The Commander of NERV frowned. “How long until it, or they, arrive?”

“Nine minutes,” Makoto announced.

“No time to waste then,” Misato remarked. “Pilots, prepare to face multiple enemies. Launch Evas.”

Three launch catapults fired, sending three behemoths hurtling towards the surface. The moment the journey ended, all three Evangelions detached from the catapults and headed for their designated co-ordinates. Unit-02 halted behind a defense building, crouching and putting the building between it and the shore, while Unit-01  knelt in the shadow of another building nearby and carefully aimed its rifle towards the beach. 

Unit-00 was a couple of kilometres further back, on the same hill it had used for sniping previously. Two massive weapons were positioned on the hill, with power cables leading to enormous trucks that acted as batteries for them. Rei checked and readied the railgun, before shifting her Evangelion over to the Positron Rifle and doing the same. She settled for the Positron Rifle for the time being, but the other weapon was close enough that it would only take a few seconds to switch.

"Asuka," Kyoko said into the comm panel. "Know that I am already proud of you. _Always_ proud of you. Nothing that happens today will change that. Don't feel that you have to show off just because I'm here. All I want is for you to come back safe."

Asuka smiled warmly at her mother, before giving a hard nod and turning her attention back to the upcoming battle.

At the five minute mark, Misato queried Lieutenant Ibuki on the target.

“It appears to be picking up speed,” Maya reported.

A short minute passed. On the holographic map projected in front of the officers, the single orange signal wavered as it drew closer and NERV's sensors got a better read on it. Suddenly, only a few hundred meters from the shoreline, the signal separated.

...Into three distinct targets, each apparently as strong as the original signal.

Misato and Ritsuko cursed in unison.

“One minute,” Aoba reported unnecessarily.

* * *

There was no pause when the Revenants came ashore. The moment the corrupted, orange-clad Evangelions came ashore, each carrying a false Lance of Longinus, and locked eyes on their multi-coloured counterparts, they surged towards the defenders of Tokyo-3 and all of humanity. The static defenses all around the city opened fire at once, peppering the incoming enemies with cannons and missiles, but the Revenants, as one, raised the hand not holding a Lance and projected an AT-Field around them, each covering a third of the area around them.

Asuka was gracious enough to let the first attack go to Rei, who fired upon the lead Revenant as it charged forward. A roiling stream of positrons blew past Unit-02, close enough that the red machine was buffeted a little by the shockwave, and slammed into the AT-Field of the lead Revenant, the former Unit-05.

It did nothing to slow the advance of the Revenants. Rei managed to fire twice more before the Positron Rifle needed to cool down, with neither shot even fazing them. She detached the shoulder-mounted weapon and let it fall to the ground, as she rolled her blue Evangelion to the left and positioned it behind the railgun.

The moment the air was clear again, Shinji was leaning out from behind his cover and firing in short bursts at Unit-05. But despite being tipped with fragments of a weapon that was designed to pierce AT-Fields, the bullets only managed to penetrate a few inches into the barrier before losing their momentum.

Only a couple of kilometres separated the Evangelions and the Revenants now. On a single word from Rei, Shinji pulled Unit-01 back into cover, clearing her line of sight. There was no time for a precise shot, so she put the reticle over Unit-05's centre of mass and pulled the trigger.

A five kilogram sharpened chunk of the stolen Lance, propelled by electromagnetic forces, exited the barrel of the railgun at just over three kilometres per second. In the space of a heart beat, the round crossed the distance between Unit-00 and the lead target, impacting the AT-Field with a force that belied its size and weight. The ensuing explosion sent a cloud of smoke and debris billowing out and around the Revenants.

Even at her distance from the target, Rei could make out the discordant note of a broken AT-Field. The cloud quickly dissipated in the stiff breeze blowing about the city, but the railgun was not yet ready to fire again. On the map in her heads up display, she could see that the Revenants had halted.

The First Child gave the smallest of smiles and adjusted her aim, ready to make a more accurate shot now that the enemy's first line of defense had...

There was still an AT-Field up between her and the target.

* * *

“The other two Revenants have shifted their AT-Fields,” Maya soberly announced. “They are now projecting towards Unit-00's position and...” She paused as more data scrolled past her screen, and her heart sank. “...They appear to have merged their AT-Fields. The barrier is now more than twice as powerful as the one Rei just destroyed.”

Ritsuko frowned darkly as she read over the young woman's shoulder. “And if Unit-05 manages to recover and add its own barrier, I don't believe anything created by man would be able to punch through.”

“How long until the railgun recharges?” Misato asked, arms crossed and staring at the holographic screen.

“Forty-five seconds,” Makoto replied.

“Rei, get back on the Positron Rifle for now,” the Commander ordered. “Just keep firing. The moment the railgun is ready, take another shot.”

“ _Acknowledged,”_ came the terse reply.

“Shinji, circle around and hit them from the side. We need to try and keep them from focusing their defense in one direction. If you can tick one off and get it to chase you, even better.”

“ _On it.”_ The blip representing Unit-01 began to move.

“Asuka?”

“ _If you say anything but 'full frontal assault', we're gonna have words when this is over.”_ There was no disguising the anticipation in the redhead's voice, even through the comm.

“How about 'charge'?” Misato replied with a small grin.

“ _That works too.”_

* * *

“ _Asuka?”_

She glanced at the comm window, now showing a concerned Shinji.

“I know; I'll be careful,” she replied, having expecting him to voice such a comment, but the boy shook his head and smiled a little.

“ _Asuka?”_ he said again, before pointing an index finger towards the comm window. _“...Smash.”_

She laughed, and Unit-02 stepped out from behind its cover in full view of the Revenants, flourishing its axe a couple of times before bringing it up to grip the haft in both hands.

“Can't exactly jump like the green guy, but I'll make do,” Asuka said before closing the connection. Much as it pained her to do such a thing, she was going to need every ounce of concentration for what was about to come.

“Right then,” she whispered with glee. “Time to end this stupid game. Let's hope Adam isn't a sore loser.” She tightened her grip on the controls, and Unit-02's hands mirrored the movement. _"Weil ich Euch in mundgerechten Happen zu ihm zurückschicke!"_ <Because I'm about to send you back to him in bite-sized chunks!>

The German words turned into a feral battle cry as Asuka sent Unit-02 charging forward. The Revenants simply stood and stared as the giant red machine closed the gap between them. When there was only a few hundred metres separating them, all three brought their Lances up into a ready stance.

Asuka was expecting to first have to contend with the enemy's empowered barrier, but her own AT-Field, extended in front of her, encountered no resistance. And then she was suddenly amongst the demons that had once plagued her dreams, immediately dodging away from their opening strike. A Lance came in from the right, and she parried it with ease before blocking another thrust from her left.

The Second Child smirked. Her mother was watching, her boyfriend was helping while staying safe, and she was right where she belonged.

To an outsider it might have seemed like she was already surrounded, but to her it simply meant that she could attack in every direction. She had fought this enemy often enough to have a good understanding of their tactics. They weren't able to fight like she and Shinji now could. Just like any group that had not been extensively trained in close quarters team fighting, the Revenants had to avoid each other as well as her. At most, two of them could attack at once while the third held back.

The pylon on Unit-02's right shoulder opened up, and after another attack of Unit-10's was closely dodged, several Lance-tipped spikes shot out in quick succession and lodged themselves into the eyeless face of the perpetrator. The Revenant recoiled and a hand shot up to grasp at its injuries, but it quickly returned its full attention to Unit-02.

Asuka heard the impact of another Positron Rifle shot as it connected with the back of one of the Revenants. With one AT-Field down, and Unit-01 flanking them, there was a large gap that Rei could fire through. Two more shots soon followed, but it seemed as if the Revenants had no care for anything but her. Even Shinji's mission to draw one off seemed doomed to failure, as they simply refused to separate.

A few seconds after the last energy burst faded, Asuka caught the now-familiar sound of a railgun firing. There was no explosion this time, but one of the Revenants staggered backwards away from her, missing an arm. The round had simply sheared right through the limb and continued onward out to sea. Asuka took that moment to carve another deep gouge into the orange armour of Unit-13 before firing another volley of spikes into the rent she had just created.

As the last spike exited the launcher, a sort of sixth sense shouted at Asuka about an enemy behind her. She tried to twist about to face the threat, but her entire right arm from the shoulder down suddenly went cold, then numb before Unit-02 could fully come about.

And then Asuka saw the tip of a Lance sticking out of her Evangelion's shoulder.

Just because they _weren't_ all attacking at once didn't mean they _couldn't_. And just because one of them had lost an arm didn't mean it was going to back off to recover.

She attempted to violently turn around, to try and rip the weapon out of its owner's grasp, but Unit-02 felt like it was moving through a tar pit. With a great effort Asuka managed to get her axe into her Evangelion's left hand, and swung it at the approaching Unit-05. The Revenant casually avoided the sluggish attack before ramming its Lance into the red Evangelion's left shoulder.

Her whole body felt numb now, and she couldn't keep hold of the axe. It dropped from nerveless fingers as the Revenants gathered around her, all three giving the impression of staring into her face despite the lack of eyes. Strangely, they seemed to be... solemn. She had expected that disgusting grin, perhaps a lick of the lips, but they were acting more like they were... unhappy with what was transpiring.

People were screaming in her ear, a certain brown-haired boy loudest of all. There was a comm window open, showing the boy almost standing up in his entry plug to get closer to the view screen.

“Shinji...” Asuka said, or tried to say. She couldn't tell if words were actually making it out of her mouth, but she continued anyway. “Don't worry about me, I'll be f-”

The final Lance pierced Unit-02's core.

Her vision turned white.

* * *

“ _A-A-A... Asuka...?”_

The command centre was deathly silent, save for the choked off words of Shinji. Kyoko had both hands clapped over her mouth, distraughtly mumbling in German and doing nothing to hide the tears leaking from her eyes. Both Misato and Ritsuko's mouths dropped open at what they had just witnessed.

Asuka, arching her back as the Lance struck, and then her entire body disintegrating and the plugsuit slowly sinking through the LCL to rest gently on the pilot chair.

“ _...Asuka?”_

On the screen, two of the Revenants slowly pulled their weapons out of Unit-02's shoulders, the third holding onto the Evangelion as they were removed before gently lowering it to the ground. As one, the Revenants turned and began stalking towards Unit-01, as frozen as its pilot.

An explosion signalled the impact of another railgun round on the AT-Field, with no appreciable effect on the barrier. With one threat eliminated and another suddenly incapacitated, there was nothing stopping them from focusing their defense in one direction.

“Shinji!” Misato finally managed to shout, her mouth as dry as a desert. “Shinji, they're coming for you!”

“ _Asuka...”_

“Should I make preparations for another N2 strike, Commander?” Ritsuko dully asked.

“No!” Misato angrily replied. “Because Shinji's going to kill them first! Shinji!” The last word was hurled at the screen. The Revenants were closing fast, but Shinji seemed entirely unaware of their presence, eyes still fixated on the comm window showing Asuka's empty plugsuit.

Finally, the boy's expression began to shift, morphing from shock into anger. His eyes squeezed shut as tightly as his fists.

“Commander...” Makoto's voice pulled Misato's attention away from the screen. “Unit-01... it's beginning to berserk,” he said in a low voice.

Hope bloomed in the woman's chest as Unit-01 began to move, hunching in on itself slightly before throwing back its head and roaring to the heavens.

Right as a Lance impaled it through the chest.

In an instant, that hope disappeared as Shinji's body did the same, leaving behind another empty plugsuit. The light went out in Unit-01's eyes as it slumped over backwards in a manner eerily reminiscent of its last battle.

Now it was Misato's turn to whisper a name in horror.

* * *

Fear tried to make itself known as an iceberg in Rei's stomach, but she ignored it as she entered a command on her console. Her two fellow pilots were down, but she could still fight. Humanity could still triumph.

The command overcharged her two weapons, sucking up every single ounce of energy from the power trucks. It was not a recommended solution, as the excessive power drain would severely damage components and put the support staff near the trucks at risk, but it was necessary. An extreme amount of power was needed to break through the Revenants' reinforced AT-Field, and Rei prayed that what she had was enough.

The targets in question had already turned towards her and were advancing quickly. Unit-00 moved from a prone position to balance on one knee, wielding both the railgun and the Positron Rifle at once. The long barrel of the railgun wavered without anything to hold it steady, but Rei soon managed to get the targeting crosshairs to line up for just long enough.

She pulled the triggers.

The railgun round hit first, exploding and obscuring the Revenants in a cloud of dust. To  Rei's dismay, there was no discordant sound of a breaking barrier, even when the particle beam hit a mere second later. She entered another command, dialling down the power needed for a railgun shot in order to fire more rapidly, before firing again, and again. The Positron Rifle was drained first, and Rei let it slide off of her Evangelion's shoulder, giving her full attention to the railgun.

For some reason she felt like screaming defiance with her next shot, and as the First Child gave in to that urge and pulled the trigger with a wordless yell, the sound she had been expecting finally made itself heard. The railgun was dialled back up as high as she could set it. She exhaled, steadied her aim, and fired once again.

The last shard of the stolen Lance flew from the barrel and pierced the chest of Unit-05, as the power trucks behind Unit-00 shorted out and caught fire. The injured Revenant halted in its tracks, clutching at the hole driven straight through its torso. Behind it, an explosion signified the stopping point of the railgun round in the ground due to the slight downward angle of the shot.

She had evidently missed the core by mere centimetres. There was no time for Rei to lament her misfortune, as she spotted the remaining Lance being thrown at her. The railgun was dropped to the ground and Unit-00 took a mighty leap sideways to dodge the attack.

The Lance's trajectory _curved_ to follow the Evangelion.

In a last-ditch effort to protect herself, Rei did the only thing left. She raised Unit-00's arms and projected the strongest AT-Field she could. For a brief instant, she recalled a memory of the Second Child trying to stop a Heavy Spear in its tracks with her AT-Field, only to be foiled by it morph-

The last thing Rei saw before her vision turned white was the Lance sticking out of Unit-00's chest.


	30. Chapter 30

Not a single word had been spoken in the NERV command centre since the loss of Rei and Unit-00 to the Revenants. Everybody was too focused on what the orange beasts were now doing with the stricken Evangelions.

Everybody, that is, except for Kyoko, who had slid bonelessly down a wall shortly after watching her daughter vanish. Misato vaguely thought that she had half-expected the mother of NERV's most fiery employee to have made some effort to regain that title for herself. But Kyoko was now sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around her knees, mumbling to herself and focusing intently on the screen. Misato sighed and turned her own attention back to the screen, still puzzled by what was going on on the surface.

After their victory, the Revenants had carefully dragged the Evangelions, a Lance still lodged in each core, to a point some distance away from the city and laid them down next to each other to form a three-pointed star with their heads at the centre. Each Revenant was kneeling at the foot of an Evangelion, looking to be concentrating deeply. There was an occasional orange flicker in the air around the scene, a sign of an immense AT-Field building up.

Misato finally broke the silence.

“Any-” She swallowed in a dry throat, and tried again. “Any response from the Evas? Anything at all?”

“No ma'am,” Makoto dully replied. “Activation commands are having no effect, and all emergency systems are failing to respond. Their AT-Field seems to be-”

There was a brilliant flash, and the flickering AT-Field became a solid orange dome.

“... _is_ blocking everything,” the spectacled officer lamely finished.

“It's just like when Nagisa blocked out everything in Terminal Dogma,” Ritsuko remarked. “Only this time, we have nothing to counter it.” The scientist leaned over Maya and typed a few commands on the console, before straightening up with a frown. “There's not even any point throwing N2 mines at it. We'd do more damage to the landscape than the enemy. And I'm not exactly confident that nuclear weapons would accomplish much either.”

“Just what the hell are they doing?” Misato hissed. “They come along, wipe the floor with us, and then... begin some kind of ritual?” The day was well past being too much for the woman, and she just barely restrained herself from slamming a fist against the wall. Again.

“I have a pretty good guess that it has something to do with the anomalous reading coming this way.”

The Sub-Commander's words pulled Misato's gaze away from the main screen, towards the console Shigeru Aoba was sitting at. Indeed, there was something the MAGI couldn't easily identify rushing through the ocean on a direct course to Tokyo-3.

Mere seconds later, an immense orange orb burst out of the water by the shoreline, its rippling surface giving it the appearance of a ball of liquid held aloft by an invisible hand, heading straight for the dome the Revenants were hiding under with the Evangelions.

“Oh. Oh don't you dare,” Misato growled out. “Don't you fucking dare steal my kids!” She took a quick breath and gave the order. “I want everything firing on whatever that is, now!”

Even if they had their doubts about the effectiveness of human weapons against this threat, all three bridge officers immediately jumped to obey, intent on doing _something_ to try and hurt the enemy. Above their heads, all around Tokyo-3, the static defenses came to life and opened up on the new arrival. Bullets, cannon shells, and explosive warheads all streaked through the sky towards the floating orange mass.

And every single projectile passed right through it as if it wasn't there. A couple of weapon emplacements suffered friendly fire as a missile exploded near them. It was, Misato decided, adding insult to injury that the thing refused to even pretend to be affected.

“Energy spike detected within the target!” Makoto loudly called out. Nobody needed to hear him, as they could all see for themselves what was happening.

A glowing white hand, larger than even an entire Evangelion, was reaching out of the bubble towards the dome. The sight of that hand, and the realisation of just what was in the bubble, froze Misato solid.

“Adam...”

Despite the weapon emplacements shifting their aim, there was no stopping the hand of the First Angel as it latched onto the orange dome and slowly lifted it up into the air. As it ascended, rock and dirt fell away to reveal that the dome had cut through the ground as well to create an impenetrable sphere a mere fraction of the size of the bubble it was now being drawn into.

“Commander, if we're going to use N2s or nukes, we'd better do it now,” Ritsuko warned. “Bombers have already lifted off and are en route. Shall I give the order for them to drop everything on Adam?”

The Commander of NERV dropped her chin to her chest, unwilling to look at the screen anymore. “Give... give the order,” she whispered. “We'll burn the entire region to radioactive ash if we have to. It'll still be better than the alternative. At least humanity will still be _alive._ ”

The AT-Field sphere was soon lost to sight inside the bubble.

* * *

“Rise and shine, Miss Soryu. Rise and shine.”

Pain was the first thing Asuka felt as she fought her way back to consciousness, taking the form of an incredibly bad headache. Thankfully, that quickly disappeared, and she blinked the fuzziness out of her eyes as she got to her feet.

Asuka was standing in a city plaza, but she couldn't make out any details. The entire area was blanketed in a thick fog that seemed to begin a few meters around her. With a start, the redhead realised that she had been here before. It was the same plaza where she had spoken to her mother the last time she had been in Instrumentality. But unlike that time, she was still in her plugsuit.

Somebody politely cleared their throat behind Asuka, and she whirled around to face them.

“Hello, again,” said the newcomer. “It's been a while since we last met, hasn't it?”

The look of death now aimed at them would have sent any normal person running for the hills. The way the angry German girl was stomping towards them would have made that same person decide it wasn't worth packing. Asuka slipped past the casually raised hand they held out, before grabbing onto both their shoulders and slamming a knee into a certain part of their anatomy.

After a few seconds, the young man hesitantly said, “Is this... some sort of Lilim greeting? Should I be doing the same to you?”

Asuka blinked, before hurriedly letting go and backing away. The boy had not even twitched at the blatant attack, and was simply giving her a bemused look. If anything, that only made her madder.

Now that she had time to fully regard him, she saw that he still had the appearance of Kaworu Nagisa. Despite never having seen the Seventeenth Angel herself due to being in a coma, the memory of him rescuing her and Shinji was still etched clearly in Asuka's mind.

And now she knew exactly who he was.

“Come to gloat about winning?” she contemptuously asked. “Beating us wasn't enough, you have to personally rub it in our faces as well, oh mighty Adam?”

“No, nothing of the sort,” the First Angel replied. “My plan requires the Evangelions but not their pilots, so you three were extracted once I gained control of them.”

At the mention of her fellow pilots, Asuka glanced around. There was no sign of Shinji or Rei nearby.

“Where-”

Anticipating the question, Adam cut her off with an explanation. “They are with Lilith for the time being. I understand she wished to speak with them about a few things.”

The redhead narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists as she walked in a slow circle around him. “'Things'? What things? And why did I get left out? Why am I stuck with you?”

Adam smiled and did not turn his head to follow Asuka as she stalked around him. “Out of respect for Lilith I did not press the matter when she brought it up, but I can assure you that your friends are safe and that you'll see them again soon.”

Asuka stopped at a point behind Adam where the circle of clear space in the fog around her just barely began to creep over his form. “And the reason for me being here with you?” she asked again.

Without seeming to even move a muscle, Adam was suddenly facing her again. “A couple of reasons; purely for your benefit. As the chariot you rode against my Revenants was made from _my_ flesh and a fragment of _my_ soul, I felt it would be appropriate if I were to be your... guide. I would have extended the same offer to the other Lilim girl, but...” He shrugs.

“Guide? Guide to _what?_ ”

Adam raised his hands to gesture at the plaza they were standing in. “Why, Instrumentality of course. If I were to simply leave you alone, you'd soon become nothing more than another lost soul.”

“Get to the point!” Asuka snarled. “Why the hell would I want to wander around this place?!”

As his arms faltered before dropping back to his side, Adam stared quizzically at her. “You... do not wish to see any members of your family that are still in Instrumentality? This would be your last chance, after all. Once everything is ready, it won't be possible for any more Lilim to leave.”

Asuka snorted derisively. “Are you referring to the asshole who happens to be my father? Yeah right.” She stomped towards Adam, stopping when only centimetres separated their faces. “What I _wish_ right now is to perform some below-the-belt surgery for what you and your damn toys have done,” she said in a dangerous tone of voice.

It was probably an automatic response built into every male in existence, but that didn't stop the tiniest of smirks from appearing on her face when she saw the First Angel clench his body slightly at the threat and twitch his hands towards his groin.

Although that didn't explain his lack of reaction to Asuka's 'greeting'.

“Peace, please,” Adam requested, once he had backed away and managed to recover. “The fighting is over. There is no need to get violent anymore.”

“Oh, there is _every_ need _,_ ” Asuka retorted. “You want to wipe humanity off the planet just so you can give it to your Angels.” She took a step forward. “You preyed on Shinji at his most vulnerable moment, turning yourself into his friend and then forcing him to _kill you_.” Another step, putting her well inside Adam's personal space. “And you _hurt him_. I may not have my Evangelion but that won't stop me from _kicking your ass_!”

Asuka pulled her fist back and and drove it into Adam's fa-

_Through_ Adam's face, throwing her off-kilter as her attack hit nothing but air. She stumbled for a moment before regaining her balance, and turned around. Adam was still standing there, staring nonplussed at her.

“You are an... interesting Lilim,” he said, all emotion gone from his face and voice. “Alone, without your weapon of war, against a god, and yet you attack despite the futility of such an action.” Adam looked down at his body. “I suppose this form has something to do with it. Perhaps it is finally time to do away with it.”

His body... flickered.

And then melted into the ground. Before Asuka could even begin to process what had just happened, the ground beneath her feet began to rumble. She cast her gaze about, looking for the source of the quaking, but saw nothing until she looked behind her.

A  _humongous_ white head was emerging from underneath the plaza, phasing through it as if it didn't exist. Asuka stared in shock as the rest of the body slowly followed, and she had to squint and shield her eyes from the glow its flesh was producing. Its shoulders were already at the height of the tallest building in the plaza when it finally stopped ascending and the ground stopped shaking, putting Asuka at eye height to the middle of a glowing white stomach.

Part of her wanted to move, to  _run_ , but her legs wouldn't obey, frozen to the spot by something Asuka refused to admit was fear. Her fists and teeth clenched.

“Y-you think that's enough to scare me?” she yelled up at the giant. “So what if you're huge? That's just more of you to hurt!”

In response, the white giant slowly folded its arms in front of a chest almost the width of the plaza itself. The brilliant glow faded slightly, just enough for Asuka to be able to cease squinting and make out what little detail there was on its body.

The giant was almost completely featureless, like a department store mannequin. Except for the the wings. Asuka was pretty sure she had never seen a mannequin that had six thin but incredibly long wings seemingly composed of pure light.

The ends of the wings curled up and over the giant's shoulders, before slamming into the ground around Asuka. She held her ground -or perhaps was still unable to move, she couldn't tell which-, even as the giant began to lean forward.

Asuka Langley-Soryu stared into an eye with a pupil as big as her entire body.

“Alright, father. I believe you've made a suitable impression on her by now.”

The eye swivelled upward, focusing on something behind Asuka. She slowly looked over her shoulder, and raised an eyebrow at what she saw.

A couple of metres away, standing with his hands in the pockets of his school uniform pants, was a young white-haired teenager that looked exactly the same as Adam had, before the Angel had shed that form.

“Hello, Miss Soryu,” said the boy. “May I request that the two of you stop this pointless posturing?”

Asuka stared at him, before casting her gaze to the giant in front of her for a moment then returning her attention back to the boy.

“... _Nagisa?!_ ”

* * *

For somebody who had once been merely one clone of a batch numbering well over a dozen, Rei still found herself shocked to wake up and look into her own face. She stared for a long while, before it finally clicked in her head.

“...Lilith,” she said.

The other person nodded. “It is good to see you again, my child,” Lilith replied as she offered a hand to Rei and lifted the girl to her feet.

“I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances, however,” Rei remarked.

Lilith smiled. “All will be made clear in due time. For now, know that you are safe.”

“And... Shinji? Asuka?”

“Asuka is with Adam.” At Rei's shocked expression, the mother of humanity quickly added, “Do not worry, she will still be safe. As for Shinji-”

“ _Waagh!_ ”

Both bluenettes turned at the startled yelp to see the object of their discussion a couple of metres away, sitting up and staring agape at them.

Upon noticing that his eyes were jumping between the two of them, Rei cleared her throat and said, “I believe he is surprised to see what appears to be a clone of me.”

“...Ah,” Lilith replied. “My apologies. I have worn this form for so long I had forgotten about it.”

A brilliant white glow erupted out of Lilith's chest, blinding the two teenagers for a moment. When Rei blinked the spots out of her eyes, she saw that Lilith was now a white-skinned, somewhat-feminine figure with six thin white wings, floating just above the ground. The glow had faded to the point where the figure's skin now seemed lit by an inner light.

If anything, Lilith's new form only surprised Shinji more, but Rei was soon by his side to lay a hand on his shoulder in reassurance. He looked up at her, and the relaxed expression on her face was enough to settle him back down.

“Hello, Shinji.”

Lilith's voice, sounding almost like two people speaking at exactly the same time, drew the boy's attention back to the floating goddess.

“U-um... hi,” he weakly replied as he got to his feet.

“Before anything else happens, I would like to say something.” Lilith placed a hand on her chest. “I am... sorry for what you endured in your role in Third Impact. I realised too late that you should not have been put in such a-.”

“No!” Rei angrily interrupted. “If anyone is to blame for that it is me! I was the one who believed that Gendo Ikari was unworthy, and I sought somebody else.” She calmed down slightly, and her chin dropped to her chest.

Lilith smiled slightly. “To be honest, if it hadn't been for the ones you call SEELE, none of us would have faced such a conundrum in the first place.”

“Yeah,” Shinji mumbled, before letting out a harsh, humourless laugh. “But that knowledge doesn't exactly wipe away everything I've been through.”

“Again, I am sorry, Shinji.” Lilith placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. “If I could take away all that pain, I would.”

“You gave me the memories of the ones who came before me,” said Rei. “Surely you could do _something_ about his trauma.”

The goddess gave a sad shake of her head. “It is not as simple as removing a memory. Those ordeals have left their mark on your soul. I could remove the memories, but the emotional scars would remain. I could make a person forget about the most horrible day of their life, but what would that do to their personality?”

“P-please...” Shinji begged. “There has to be _something_ you can do!” He slapped a hand to his forehead. “Being with... being with Asuka has helped, but... I can still hear the screams sometimes.”

Lilith raised an eyebrow, before floating towards Shinji. Her feet touched the ground when they were almost nose-to-nose, and she gently removed the boy's hand from his forehead before bringing her own hands up to cup his ears. Her head tilted back slightly, and the glow of her body seemed to intensify slightly. Shinji's eyes turned glassy as Lilith held his head.

Rei took the time to look around, which didn't take long as they appeared to be in an utterly featureless white room. Only a slight difference in tint prevented the goddess from being invisible.

After several minutes, the glow dimmed once more as Lilith let go and stepped back. Rei was quick to catch Shinji before he collapsed, and the boy roughly shook his head as his senses returned.

“Feels like... somebody just poked me in the middle of my brain,” he muttered.

“Now I believe I do have something to actually apologise for,” said Lilith. “That was not a memory you had been experiencing, but a...” She stopped speaking Japanese, and the doubled effect of her voice ceased as she said something in a language Rei could not understand before returning to Japanese. “...It is impossible to describe properly in a human language. The closest I can get is that a fragment of Instrumentality itself was still attached to your soul.”

“Was?” Shinji repeated.

“I have removed it.” The boy collapsed again, but it was with relief on his face. “It should not have been there in the first place, for which I am really to blame.” Again, one of Lilith's two voices ceased as she said something in her strange language, and then shook her head in dismay.

“It doesn't matter if you can't explain it,” said Shinji. “The fact that I don't have to deal with it anymore is enough.”

Lilith smiled. “In that case, I have something for the two of you that may lift your spirits.”

“Should we not be concerned about Adam's plan, first and foremost?” Rei interjected. “He has beaten us, after all.”

“There is nothing to worry about. Trust me, we have plenty of time before anything will happen. Now then...”

Lilith waved a hand at one of the walls, and a door appeared with no fanfare, as if it had always been there.

“Shall we go?”

Shinji and Rei looked at each other in confusion. After a moment, Rei moved towards the door and Shinji followed. It opened as they approached, and the teenagers stepped through...

Into a hallway.

“Um... is this...?” Shinji began.

“Whatever you see in Instrumentality is merely your mind's interpretation,” Lilith explained as she stepped out of the door behind them. “Right now we are moving from one... closed off section to another.”

She set off down the hallway, and Shinji and Rei followed hesitantly. What felt like only seconds later, despite passing seemingly dozens of doors, the goddess stopped in front of one that looked no different from the others. With a wave of her hand the door opened, but whatever was inside was covered by a brilliant glow that the teenagers had to shield their eyes from.

“I will not be following you just yet,” said Lilith. “What is through this portal would best be experienced without my interference, for the time being.”

Again, Shinji and Rei glanced at each other. This time, Shinji was the first through the door. Rei followed, and almost immediately bumped into his back as the boy had stopped suddenly.

There was a woman in front of them, sitting on a bench under a tree in a beautiful park. A brown-haired woman with a very familiar face.

“M-mother...?”

* * *

“... _Nagisa?!_ ” Asuka exclaimed incredulously as her clenched fists relaxed out of sheer surprise.

Kaworu Nagisa nodded and smiled. “Correct. And I would just like to clarify something.” The smile vanished. “Adam had nothing to do with what happened to Shinji Ikari. That was all me, and I regret it now as much as I did back then.”

_That_ got Asuka's legs to move. She stormed up to Kaworu and gave him the exact same greeting she had given Adam. This time, the redhead got the reaction she was expecting as the boy collapsed to the ground and curled into a ball.

Behind Asuka, she heard a growl of anger, but Kaworu swiftly raised a hand and wheezed out, “N-no, father, there's... nothing to worry about.” He gingerly got to his feet and continued. “It's far less than I deserve, after all.”

“So what happens now?” Asuka asked. “Do I get to kick your ass instead of your dad's?”

“No, that won't be necessary,” Kaworu replied, wincing slightly. “There are more important things right now than delivering the punishment I deserve. Such as congratulating you.”

“...What,” Asuka flatly replied.

“You won. You were victorious.”

The redhead felt a gust of wind against her back as Adam snorted contemptuously, but she kept her focus on Kaworu.

“To put it simply, Adam has... conceded,” the boy explained. “With some... ah... convincing, we managed to come to something of a compromise.”

“Conceded. A compromise,” Asuka flatly repeated, before her voice rose. “So what you're saying is that the entire last year was a fucking _waste_ of time, effort and resources!”

“No no no!” Kaworu hurriedly said, waving his hands in front of him. “Your victories against my father were what finally got him to agree.”

“ **Yes,”** said the giant behind Asuka, in a voice like lead slabs falling on a marble floor. **“If you had failed, if humanity had simply given up in the face of my attacks, I would have had no qualms about ending their existence.”**

Asuka turned around. Adam was now leaning on the ground as if it were a table, chin in hand and tapping a finger on his cheek.

“ **But... what kind of being would erase such a tenacious,** _ **determined**_ **race just to propagate another?”** The giant looked down at the redhead. **“The universe would be a poorer place without humanity. But at the same time, the urge to spawn my progeny, to restart my race is... almost overwhelming.”**

“And so Lilith, Father and I managed to work something out,” said Kaworu. “The Angels are from an entirely different galaxy, sent to this one billions of years ago when their race was about to die out. Adam and Lilith were not meant to be in the same solar system, let alone land on the same planet. Father doesn't know what happened, though.”

“ **It is something perhaps only Lilith could explain,”** Adam stated. **“Her Seed was launched second, and was supposed to go in a different direction, yet it turned to follow mine not long after it left orbit. By then it was too late to do anything but watch.”**

Asuka blinked, before shifting her attention back to Kaworu. “So what is this 'compromise'? Are the Angels going to exist alongside humanity or something?”

“That would be... nice,” the boy admitted, “but impossible. In order to create more Angels now, Father would have to initiate something similar to an Impact event. That is what would have happened if humanity had lost. But there would have been no chance for you to survive in any form, unlike what happened with Third Impact. No, instead he will leave Earth with Lilith and the Evangelions.”

“He's taking the Evas?!” the redhead loudly exclaimed.

Kaworu nodded. “That is the compromise. Their bodies are needed, as Adam and Lilith cannot exist outside of Instrumentality as they are right now. The S2 Organ that Unit-01 possesses is also required.”

“But...” Asuka weakly began. She felt utterly torn on how to feel about losing her Evangelion. On the one hand, it was what she had almost literally spent her entire life working with. On the other... if there were no Evangelions, Shinji would be safe. He would never need to pilot again.

And Asuka realised that she would give anything to prevent Shinji from such a fate.

“...Alright, I guess I can't really do much to stop you,” she conceded, before a thought occurred. “Wait, there's Adam and Lilith, but there's _three_ Evas. What's happening to the last one?”

“It is going with them as well, simply to remove its presence from this planet,” said Kaworu. “Humanity was never really meant to have such a thing to begin with.”

“ **The chariots of you and the other Lilim girl were made from** _ **my**_ **flesh,”** Adam rumbled. He leaned in close to Asuka. **“Is there a problem with that?”**

Asuka stared right back at the giant for several long seconds, before shrugging and saying, “Eh, you may as well take it anyway. Humanity would only get... ideas if an Eva was left behind.”

Like building more of them. And more. Along with weapons for them to wield. Wars would erupt, spearheaded by bipedal giants that could only be stopped with massive quantities of explosives, and piloted by  _ children _ . As it was, there was going to be  _ somebody _ attempting to build their own Evangelion in secret. It was inevitable that someone would try.

A vision flashed in Asuka's mind of a war-weary child that looked strikingly similar to Shinji, staring out his Evangelion's cockpit at another behemoth across a wasteland, and she shuddered at the thought.

“ **Good.”**

Adam's flesh began to glow, forcing Asuka to shield her eyes again. When the glow faded, the giant was nowhere to be seen.

“Father is preparing for the exodus,” Kaworu explained. “But there is still plenty of time left, if you wish to meet anybody still in Instrumentality.”

“Like I said to the big guy,” Asuka irritably replied, “I don't give a damn about my father. Besides, anybody who hasn't left yet is obviously completely happy with their own perfect little world.”

The teenage boy tilted his head in a half nod of agreement. “True. I can say that the members of SEELE wholeheartedly believe that they actually succeeded in their plan. Every single one of them is convinced that humanity has become a singular being, ruled by them.”

The redhead snorted. “Old men, running the world. A new age,” she sarcastically commented, before turning serious. “So... everybody got their perfect world thanks to Third Impact, but most people rejected it. And yet everybody who left couldn't remember that world.”

“A simple failing of the human mind, unfortunately.”

“Yeah, pretty much exactly what Doctor Akagi said. Anyway, I distinctly remember _not_ getting any world at all. I went straight to my mother convincing me to leave.”

“Oh no, you did have your own world, Miss Soryu, but you're still human.” Kaworu shrugged helplessly. “You remember your mother because at that moment you two had been... separated from the rest of Instrumentality. And you did not reject your reality, you were pulled out of it for the meeting.”

“Damn,” Asuka muttered, but then she brightened up. “But hey, my reality back then would probably just have revolved around my mother. Now I have her _and_ Shinji. The _real_ reality is definitely better than whatever's in here.”

“Actually...”

A hand shot up to forestall any comment. “Let me guess: My false reality was me, Shinji and Mama.”

“...Pretty much. It was a world where Evangelions and Angels never existed. You and Shinji found love and...” Kaworu broke off with a smile. “Well, I'm sure whatever comes next for you two after this will dwarf the false reality.”

_More dates._

_Graduating together._

_Being with Shinji through college._

_Getting... married._

_...Having... children...?_

Asuka's cheeks were now burning brightly, and she missed the chuckle the boy let out as she turned her head away.

“Shinji is truly fortunate to have you, after everything that life has thrown at him,” Kaworu commented wistfully. When Asuka looked back at him, there was melancholy written all over his face. “I almost wish I could return with you so that I could apologise for what I did to him. But for his own good, I must remain separate.”

Asuka narrowed her eyes. “I don't want you anywhere near him either.”

“Soon, I will be about as far away from him as it is possible to be.”

“Good,” Asuka replied in a reasonable impression of the departed Adam's voice.

A moment of silence passed between the two, before Kaworu spoke up. “How... is Shinji doing now, anyway? While he has been in here, I have not had the... courage to check on him.”

“He's fine... or at least much better _,_ thanks to me.” The redhead stopped and thought a bit. “Okay, thanks to me, Misato, Wondergirl and our friends, I _guess._ ”

“Then I am satisfied. It is certainly an improvement compared to Shinji's false reality.”

“...What do you mean?”

Kaworu sighed, long and deep, before turning away from Asuka. “It would perhaps be better to show you,” he said as he waved a hand in front of him.

A doorway was suddenly always there. The boy beckoned Asuka to follow before stepping through. With some trepidation, she went in after him. Her vision shimmered and wavered, before refocusing on the back of Kaworu's white school shirt. In front of them, hovering in a black void, were what looked like several television screens, all showing friends and family that Asuka easily recognised.

On one screen, Class 2-A at school were chatting before the first bell rang. On another, Misato, Asuka, and Rei were at the beach with their friends. On yet another, Asuka was at a restaurant talking to a strangely handsome young man _that wasn't Shinji_ and-

“Wait,” she said, as she started to realise what the common thread between the realities was. “Where's...”

“He's not there,” Kaworu sadly replied. “In these realities Shinji created, he simply doesn't exist.” He glanced sidelong at Asuka, who was staring in horror at the visions.

“He... he thought a perfect world was one without him?” Asuka asked in a voice filled with horror.

“There were a dozen more, similar to this. There was one where he did exist, but it didn't... last long, so to speak.”

“ _Show me_.”

The redhead's voice seemed to be all that Kaworu needed. He crossed his arms in front of his chest for a split second before throwing them outward as if he were tossing confetti. The images of the worlds without Shinji evaporated into dust, and something seemed to fly out of the boy's chest; a screen that expanded to fill the void left by the smaller ones.

“The one reality Shinji created that was... nice,” Kaworu murmured. “It is... what I have been using to stay hopeful for him.”

A scene played out in front of their eyes on the screen. A larger-than-life Asuka burst into a bedroom, waking up a sleepy Shinji before being shocked by something the real Asuka had already accidentally experienced once or twice thanks to their sleeping arrangements (Shinji had had to embarrassedly explain, with a bright red face, the male phenomenon of 'morning wood' to her, and after that Asuka simply poked a little fun at him whenever it happened).

The scene progressed, showing both of Shinji's parents in the kitchen as the children got ready, and then went on to have Rei Ayanami crash headlong into Shinji on their way to school. Various other 'normal life' things happened, but the scene dissolved just as Asuka was beginning to enjoy it.

“Even after all his hardships, and despite all those realities he made without himself, Shinji still managed to create a happy world,” Kaworu mused. “For a while I kind of... regretted that he chose to end Third Impact so soon.”

“Take me back to him,” Asuka quietly ordered.

“Hmm?” The boy twisted his upper body slightly to glance at her. “What was that?”

“I said take me back to Shinji.”

“Oh.” Kaworu distractedly waved a hand, and another doorway appeared. “Go out there, turn left and take the twenty-eighth door on your right.”

Rather than waste time analysing the directions or convincing him to come along, Asuka simply committed them to memory and ran through the doorway.

Kaworu returned his attention to the screen as the scene replayed itself, and he smiled contentedly.

“Godspeed, Frau Soryu,” he whispered. “I wish you two all the best.”

* * *

It took Rei several long seconds to get over the shock of seeing her _other_ progenitor face to face. In that time, the woman got up and walked slowly towards Shinji, who didn't seem to know whether he should run to or away from her. Yui Ikari, for her part, evidently felt the same way. There was a smile on her face as she stared at Shinji, but it was sad and brittle.

And so Rei took it upon herself to start the conversation.

“H-hello, Mrs Ikari,” she haltingly greeted.

Yui turned her head to look at the girl, and the smile brightened an infinitesimal amount. “Hello, Rei. And please, call me Yui. In normal circumstances I would perhaps suggest something even more familiar, but...”

“These are far from normal circumstances,” Rei agreed, before stepping closer to Shinji and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. To him, she quietly said, “Shinji, are you not going to talk to her?”

With what might have been the tiniest of shoves from  Rei , Shinji staggered forward, closing the distance between himself and his mother before awkwardly placing both arms around her. Yui embraced her son, but even to Rei's eyes the hug seemed awkward, as both participants appeared incredibly unsure of each other.

“My darling son...” Tears were now flowing from Yui's eyes. “I have waited so long to be able to see you face to face again.”

Apart from a single sniffle, Shinji remained silent.

“You were still in Unit-01, weren't you?” Rei asked. “You could have spoken to him whenever he was piloting.”

“Yes, but... I couldn't,” Yui replied with a sad shake of the head. “I wasn't... conscious when Unit-01 was brought back to NERV. The first thing I felt after Third Impact was... Shinji's pain. That was what woke me up.” Shinji stiffened in the embrace, and she responded by tightening her hold. “That pain... I felt so _guilty_ for my part in it that I hid myself away in the core. All I had wanted to do was give my son happiness, but I just ended up hurting him.”

“You killed yourself in front of me,” Shinji mumbled. “I couldn't even clearly recall that day until last year because it was so... so...”

Yui nodded. “I'm so sorry for that, my son, but I had to sacrifice myself. SEELE were about to make me... disappear. My death and absorption into Unit-01 was just the first step to ruining their plan for Third Impact.”

“But...” Shinji yanked himself out of the embrace. “ _Why_ did you kill yourself in front of me? Why did you decide to _traumatise your own son?!_ ”

Flinching at the harshness in the boy's words, Yui replied, “That was the furthest thing from my mind, Shinji, but... it was unavoidable. The reason I brought you to NERV that day was... selfishness, in a way.”

“Selfishness?” both Rei and Shinji repeated at the same time.

“Yes. That was going to be my last day as... a normal person. From that point on I would only exist as the soul inside an Evangelion.” Yui stared longingly at her son as her tears continued unabated. “I-I brought you there so that the last thing I saw would be my wonderful son. As Unit-01 absorbed me, even through the agony I felt, I kept my eyes on you and thought of the paradise I could bring about for you.”

“You...” Shinji breathed. Words failed him, and he instead chose to express himself by hugging his mother again.

There was silence for a while, before the scene was interrupted by a new voice.

“Guess that's what I get for automatically assuming the worst of people. Then again, I was pretty well within my right to distrust the woman who _abandoned her son_.”

Three sets of eyes turned to the tree Yui had been sitting under, where a girl in a red plugsuit was leaning and propping herself up with an outstretched hand on the trunk. Yui flinched slightly as the girl locked a disapproving stare on her for a moment.

“A-Asuka?!” Shinji gasped, leaning past his mother to see who it was. “You're alright!”

Pushing herself away from the tree, Asuka airily replied, “Duh, of course I'm fine. I'm the Great Asuka Langley-Soryu!”

Hastily extricating himself from his mother's embrace again, Shinji ran over to the tree. “I-I mean I kinda already knew you were fine, like... I'm pretty sure I would have felt it in here if there was something wrong with you, but I got so caught up in every-”

Asuka placed both hands on the boy's shoulders. “Shinji, you're babbling.”

“Um, so-... yeah...”

“Now are you going to introduce me properly or what?”

It took a moment, but Shinji's eyes lit up at the realisation. “Y-yeah, of... of course I will.” He turned back towards his mother, pausing momentarily as he took in the sight of Yui Ikari and Rei Ayanami now standing side by side. He shook his head to clear it, took Asuka's hand in his own, and said, “M-mum, This is... well she just... um... told you her name... Ah... Asuka is... she's m-my g-g-gi... girlf-f-fr-”

Asuka sighed loudly, and reached up with her free hand to gently slap the stammering boy's cheek. “Come on, you can do this, right? It's not like she's the first to find out.”

With a shaky nod of his head, Shinji closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Mum,” he said after a few seconds. “I'd like you to meet my g-girlfriend, Asuka.”

Rei felt a smile creep onto her face. A sniffle drew her attention to the woman beside her; Yui had both hands over her mouth and was clearly struggling not to cry any harder.

“Oh... my dear sweet Shinji,” Yui mumbled through her hands. “You grew up without me into a fine young man. I don't know how much weight my words have anymore, but you two definitely have my blessing.”

“I do not mean to be rude, but was there really a need for the introduction?” Rei inquired. “Surely you would have known about their relationship already, Mrs- ah... Yui.”

“It's not about her already knowing, Wondergirl,” Asuka cut in. “It's about Shinji being able to say it. And I _suppose_ he did alright.” There was a grin on her face as she looked approvingly at the boy in question. As soon as Shinji returned the smile, Asuka turned back to Yui.

“So yeah. I'm Asuka Langley-Soryu. Second Child, pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, and your son's girlfriend.” She held out her left hand to Yui. “Charmed, huh?”

Yui reached out and took the proffered hand...

And Asuka's right hand shot out as fast as a striking cobra, delivering a ringing slap to Yui's face that staggered the woman, sending her reeling away and almost falling over.

“I'm also the one that comforts Shinji whenever he has a nightmare about what happened last year,” Asuka added in a dark tone.

With a hand raised to her bright red cheek, Yui stared fearfully at the angry redhead for a few seconds before shifting her gaze away out of shame. Next to Asuka, Shinji was gaping like a fish, unsure if he should move to check on his mother. The Second Child's fist clenched, but Rei stepped in front of her.

“You have made your point,” she said. “There is no need for further violence.”

The two female pilots looked at each other for several long seconds, before Asuka unclenched her fist, crossing her arms and turning away.

“Yeah, we're a lot closer to being even now anyway,” she said over her shoulder.

Rei moved to Yui, gently moving the woman's hand away from her now flaming red cheek. “You were in Unit-01,” she quietly stated. “Did you not know that Asuka would be... unhappy with you?”

“I did say I was hiding from Shinji,” Yui said to Rei with a shade of reproach -and remorse- in her voice. “I hurt him, and didn't want to risk hurting him again, so I... kept away from him. The only time when I made contact with him this year before now was when...”

Shinji had finally broken free of his paralysis and moved in to check on his mother. “When I almost died,” he dully finished.

His mother nodded sadly. “I felt you slipping away. I couldn't let that come to pass, so I took control of Unit-01 to save your life.”

“Something _nobody_ would complain about,” Asuka remarked, before looking thoughtful. “Well, maybe SEELE, but who gives a damn about them?”

“Indeed. They shall never return from Instrumentality anyway,” said Rei, before recounting what Lilith had revealed about the shadowy organisation's 'reward'.

Asuka nodded dismissively. “Yeah, Nagisa told me about them.”

“N-Nagisa?!” Shock flashed across Shinji's face at the mention of the Angel who had tricked him.

“Hey, relax, he's nowhere near us,” Asuka placatingly said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

The boy shook his head.“N-no, that's not what... Isn't Nagisa part of Adam?”

“Oh.” Asuka quickly spoke of her meeting with Adam and Kaworu.

“An exodus,” Rei mused. “But no more people would return from Instrumentality. They would be trapped forever.”

“Anybody who has not left by now is clearly happy with their false reality. Forcefully removing them would likely do more harm than good,” said Yui. “As for those who engineered Third Impact, it is an apt punishment; though SEELE will likely remain too deluded to notice.”

Asuka and Rei caught on to the hidden meaning in the woman's words at almost exactly the same time. While the bluenette was merely visibly shocked, Asuka's expression was a mix of surprise and satisfaction.

Rei tried to speak. “Are you saying...”

Yui nodded. “Yes. I will remain here.”

“ _W-what!?_ ” Shinji yelled. “No! You don't have to do this! Come back with us!”

“Oh don't be such a coward,” spat Asuka. “If my mother was able to come back despite ten years in an Eva core and being _mentally destroyed_ by Unit-02, you can do the same damn thing.”

Shinji glanced sidelong at the redhead, surprised by the venom in her voice. “Asuka...”

Yui shook her head. “It's not cowardice, young lady. This is my penance. Besides, Lilith had... something of a job offer when she approached me soon after Unit-01 entered Instrumentality. She knew that I was planning to stay in Instrumentality, and suggested a task I can perform as... community service I suppose.”

“A... task?” Shinji repeated.

“I would be the human ambassador to the Angels,” Yui clarified. “Though their new home would be incredibly far away from ours, there will come a time when humans and Angels meet again. With my help, it will be much less... confrontational when it happens.”

“So that's it then?” Asuka sneered. “You're just gonna piss off into space and abandon your son? _Again_?”

“Not abandon, no,” Yui harshly replied, before softening her voice. “Shinji has grown up. He has friends, a sister, and you to look after him.” She placed both hands on Shinji's shoulders. “Shinji, I'll always love you, and I'll always be proud of you. But you no longer _nee_ _d_ me.”

Shinji seemed on the verge of tears again, while Asuka looked as if she had just stopped herself from uttering another acidic comment.

“...Can't I _want_ you to stay with me though?” Shinji finally choked out.

“Stop trying to fight this, dummy,” said Asuka. “It'll just be more painful for the both of you. She's already made her decision, after thinking it over for a very long time. _Let her go._ ”

Shinji turned to her with a helpless look on his face. “B-but...” he tried to say, before looking down and heaving a sigh. “Alright, then.”

The dull tone of his acquiescence reminded Rei of how Shinji had often spoken the previous year, when he would become utterly passive and monotone. In an attempt to salvage what she could of the situation, Asuka pulled Shinji into a tight hug. Rei didn't hear what was whispered into his ear, but it lifted her brother's mood just enough for him to hug Asuka back. They broke apart after a couple of minutes, and that was when Yui swooped in.

“There's not a lot of time left,” the woman stated as she hugged her son once again. “But there's one more person you should see before you leave.”

Asuka smacked the knuckles of her fist into the palm of her other hand. “Oh yes, I know _exactly_ who you're talking about.”

Yui glared at her again, but continued to talk to Shinji. “I know it's going to be tough, Shinji, but I feel that you need to see him. To see... your father.”

Shinji's right hand instantly clenched into a fist at the mention of that person.

“Oh, but before you three leave...” Yui reached out and pulled Rei into the embrace. “I was not going to forget about you, my daughter.” Rei's cheeks burned at the sudden attention, and she haltingly lifted her arms to return the hug. Yui squeezed Shinji and Rei for a moment, before releasing them.

“Now then, it's time for us to part.” Though there were tears streaming down her face, the woman's smile was bright. “I've never been fond of long goodbyes. Shinji, Rei, you are both wonderful people, and do not let anybody tell you otherwise. As for you, young lady...” Her gaze shifted to bore into Asuka as she dropped the smile. “Look after my son, or I'll reach across space to give you a clip around the ear hole.”

Though it was clearly a jest, Asuka paled and nodded, “Y-yes ma'am,” she unsteadily replied.

“Good.” The bright and sunny smile returned. “Farewell, children. May you all live long, happy and peaceful lives.”

As her last word was spoken, Yui began to fade. Shinji rushed forward to try and hold onto her, but her form slipped through his fingers like water. In mere seconds, there was no sign that she had ever been there. Rei decided it was her turn to hug Shinji, but her arm collided with Asuka's as the redhead, evidently also planning to comfort Shinji, attempted her own embrace. The two girls looked at each other for a moment, before nodding simultaneously as a silent compromise was reached.

Standing on either side of Shinji, they snaked an arm around to grasp the opposite side of the boy's waist. Though he seemed too distracted to notice, Rei felt Shinji's tense muscles relax at least a little as the three teenagers stayed like that for some time.

Eventually, a flicker of light at the edge of Rei's vision caught her attention, and she looked to the right to see another glowing doorway.

“There it is,” she quietly said. “Are we all ready to leave?”

“Not really,” Shinji replied melancholically. “But let's just get this over with.”

Together, they stepped through the doorway.

* * *

The first thing that Asuka noticed about the place the three teenagers found themselves in was that the colours seemed strangely washed out. It was as if she was looking at an area that belonged in a television show from the fifties.

The moderately-sized house in front of them, just one among many others on the street, stood out only because it seemed somewhat livelier than its surroundings. The paint was just a little fresher-looking, the lawn a little healthier, the flowers a little brighter.

Shinji, Asuka and Rei broke their awkward embrace as they headed through the fence gate, passing the letterbox that stated in discrete lettering that this was the Ikari residence, and stopping at the front door. Asuka folded her arms and sighed as Shinji and Rei looked apprehensively at one another, before reaching out and stabbing a finger at the doorbell. A tinny tune sounded somewhere inside, followed by a voice calling out.

“Just a second!”

It ended up being twenty seconds before the door was unlocked and a suspiciously familiar woman looked out at the teenagers.

“Good afternoon!” the woman said with a beaming but unsure smile.

“U-uh...” Asuka eloquently replied. “...Yui?”

“Why yes, that's me. What can I do for you?”

“What are you-”

Rei suddenly stepped behind Shinji, digging an elbow into Asuka's ribs. As Asuka turned to glare at the side of her head for the interruption, the bluenette said, “Please excuse my friend. We are looking for Gendo Ikari. Is he available?”

The sunny smile wavered a little. “Yes, my husband is in. Ah... are you friends of his?”

“In a matter of speaking,” Rei replied. “Would we be able to come in and speak with him for a few minutes?”

“Of course. Come in, come in!”

The teenagers stepped through the doorway one at a time, removing their shoes just beyond the threshold before following the woman who was apparently Yui Ikari.

“What's going on here?” Asuka hissed.

In an equally low voice, Rei answered, “This is Gendo's reality. His perfect life.”

There wasn't time for more to be said, as 'Yui' stopped at an archway. “My husband is just through here. He's been a bit under the weather lately, though.”

Asuka was the second person to enter the lounge room, just behind Shinji, but she was forced to stop walking almost immediately; it was that or knock Shinji over.

In the lounge room, a small boy was laying on his stomach, paper and pencils strewn about the carpet.

A boy with brown hair and big blue eyes, that was now looking curiously at the newcomers.

Asuka was gently nudged aside as 'Yui' manoeuvred past her, with a “Pardon me, I'll just be a moment” as she picked the child up. As the woman passed a chair on her way out of the lounge room, she reached out to tap its occupant on the shoulder.

“Dear, there are some people here to see you.”

Whoever was in the chair seemed to take no notice of the physical contact or the words. With both fists itching, Asuka waited until 'Yui' was well out of sight before stomping up to the chair. She drew a fist back, but stopped as her eyes took in the state of the person in front of her.

A thin, pale, and unkempt man was curled up in the chair, clutching a photo frame to his chest and staring vacantly at a spot behind Asuka while mouthing something she couldn't make out. Out of morbid curiosity, she glanced behind her to see what he was looking at, and her cocked fist dropped to her side.

On the wall above an unlit fireplace sat a massive photograph depicting two adults smiling at the camera while a child, no more than one or two years of age, sat in the woman's lap. To the sides, more photographs sprinkled the walls and furniture tops, showing various scenes in the family's life. As Asuka's gaze travelled around the room, she realised that there were no other decorations or knick knacks; the entire lounge room was filled with photos.

A low, disbelieving voice spoke up from behind Asuka. “ _This_ is the reality he has chosen?” Rei murmured. “To spend his days staring into the past?”

“Looks that way,” Asuka quietly replied, looking back at the dishevelled man in the chair. Hate warred with pity and disgust in her mind. She had been looking forward to _hurting_ the man who had caused so much pain to Shinji. But the thing in front of her was so pathetic that she had to hold herself back.

Because it would be like hurting Shinji; kicking somebody who was already knocked down so far they were buried in bedrock, having long since given up on extricating themselves. It was no longer worth doling out retribution to Gendo Ikari. In his current state, the man likely wouldn't even notice.

“I take it you will not be exacting revenge either?” Rei asked, breaking her out of her musing.

A glance at the bluenette told Asuka everything. Barely concealed disdain was on the First Child's face, with some pity mixed in. “Hmph. Hardly even worth it,” she muttered in agreement.

A hand slithered into  her hand , that had so recently been a fist directed at the man's head. Asuka almost jumped in shock, before she recognised who  it belonged to. She belatedly realised that Shinji had been right there next to them, also taking in the scene.

“...You okay?” she asked, punctuating the question with a squeeze of the hand.

“No,” Shinji slowly replied, staring at the man that looked something like his father. “I don't really know what I was expecting to see when I saw my-... _him_ in Instrumentality, but it wasn't... _this_.”

Gendo blinked several times as Shinji spoke; his glassy, sightless stare shifting and sharpening. “...Shin... ji...” he whispered. “For... give... me...”

“Bit late for that, _Arschloch_ ,” Asuka remarked as soon as she pieced the words together.

“For... give... me...”

The redhead groaned. “Shut up. You blew any chance you had for forgiveness a long time ago.”

Shinji's grip on her hand tightened. “Asuka, I...” He took a breath. “Part of me wants to... I know it must sound crazy to you-”

“You're damn right it does!” Asuka exclaimed angrily. “This is the asshole that treated you no better than scum on the bottom of his shoe, and you want to _forgive him_?!”

Shinji shook his head. “Maybe that's the wrong word. I'll never be able to forget what happened, and if he had returned from Instrumentality I would have held it against him for the rest of his life, but...” He shrugged helplessly. “I _kind of_ understand why he did what he did.”

“...You're kidding,” Asuka flatly said.

“Think about it. He lost somebody very close to him, somebody that was all he had keeping him afloat, and in his grief he decided that he would burn the world to get that person back.” Shinji laughed once, humourlessly. “Any of that sound familiar to you?”

“Wh- That's not...” Asuka began, before falling silent. _That_ scream echoed in her head once more; the scream of a boy who had finally lost absolutely everything.

“Is everything alright in here? I heard shouting.” 'Yui' appeared in the archway, still holding the child.

Rei moved to intercept the woman. “We are fine. My friend was just a bit surprised about something.”

“Oh... alright...” 'Yui' replied uncertainly. “Um...”

“I shall explain to you,” the First Child said as she walked out of the lounge room.

“Ah... okay. Say, you and that young man look a little familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?”

“In a matter of speaking.”

Rei and 'Yui' left, leaving Asuka and Shinji alone with the broken man.

“Shinji,” Asuka began again. “Don't compare yourself to... _this_ thing.” She pointed at Gendo. “You... alright, you made a mistake, but _you fixed it_. You're stronger than him. You're _better_ than him.”

“Am I? Am I really?” Shinji's voice was almost pleading.

“ _Yes_.” Asuka held up their still-clasped hands in front of their eyes. “Do you really think I'd be with you if you were _anything_ like your father?”

Though he flinched a little at the mention of the familial link, Shinji smiled. He then glanced back at Gendo and said, “So yeah. It's not forgiveness, but it's...”

“About as close as somebody like him will ever get,” Asuka finished, to which the Third Child nodded.

“Forgive me... Shinji...”

Asuka rolled her eyes at Gendo. “Oh knock it off.”

“Forgive me, Shinji.”

“Shut up.”

“Forgive me Shinji!”

The man leapt out of the chair, the photo frame dropping to his feet, as he latched onto Shinji's shirt.

“Forgive me!”

“A-A-Asuka...!”

“Forgive me!”

Asuka let go of Shinji's hand and took a few steps away. “You know what to do. You're  _ stronger than him _ .”

Shinji gaped at her as his right hand reflexively clenched and unclenched. “W-what do you mean?!”

Crossing her arms, the redhead stared right back at him. “You know what to do,” she repeated.

“Forgive me!”

Asuka watched and waited as Gendo continued to cry out.

“Forgive me!”

She placed a hand on the uncertain boy's left shoulder and gave him a pointed look. “You're better than him.”

“Forgi-”

Shinji's right hand, curled into a tight fist, connected hard with Gendo's jaw, knocking him away and sending him sprawling face first onto the floor. With a deep shuddering breath, the boy's leg's gave way, dropping him to his knees as he stared at the hand that had just dealt with his father.

Asuka stepped forward and clasped both her hands around Shinji's hand, pulling it up and dragging Shinji back to his feet. She turned him away from the sight of the broken man on the floor before giving him a hug.

“F-forgive _that_ ,” Shinji eventually mumbled.

The comeback was incredibly weak, but Asuka smiled anyway as she chuckled into his shoulder. “See? What did I say?”

“Y-yeah...”

“Now let's go. There's nothing left for us here.”

Shinji managed to surprise Asuka, by taking her by the hand and leading them out of the house, pausing only to get their shoes back on. Outside, Rei and 'Yui' were standing to one side of the path from the front door to the street.

And Rei was cradling the little boy in her arms, gently rocking the now dozing child.

“You will make a wonderful mother someday,” 'Yui' said to Rei, who could only respond with blushing and stammering.

“Hey Wondergirl,” Asuka called out the moment she got over the strangeness of the scene. “Time to go.”

“Oh, that's a shame,” 'Yui' sadly said. “Are you sure you can't stay a little longer?”

“Sorry, but we really need to go,” Asuka replied. “Besides, I think your husband's illness is starting to get worse.”

“Oh dear!” 'Yui' hurriedly retrieved the boy from Rei, before retreating indoors with a quick farewell.

The moment the door closed, Asuka said, “Now let's get out of here before she realises what happened.”

The trio took one step down the street before everything around them began to dissolve. Asuka clutched her head and tried to stave off the dizziness she suddenly felt.

“My apologies, but time is now very short.”

They turned to see Lilith, standing next to Adam, who was now merely the same physical size as the mother of humanity.

“It is almost time for the exodus,” Lilith explained. “Are all your affairs in order?”

“As much as they could be, given the circumstances,” Asuka replied.

“Are you sure you do not wish to say goodbye to your own father?”

Only Shinji squeezing her hand prevented Asuka from shouting the first thing that came to mind. She growled deep in her throat.

“You're better than him,” Shinji quietly said into her ear.

“Traitor,” Asuka muttered right back at him. To Lilith, she said, “ _Fine_. I'll give him a couple minutes.”

Lilith's hands weaved a complex shape in the air. Without any ceremony, a large light-haired man appeared next to her, staggering a bit from the sudden transition.

“ _Was zum Teufel?!”_ he exclaimed, before recovering his balance and looking around. Upon spotting Asuka, he began to run over to her.

“ _Asuka, is that_ -”

In German, Asuka said,  _ “Stop right there.” _ She held out a hand, bringing the man to a halt several meters away.  _ “I'm only doing this now because I won't get the chance to later. This, _ ” she indicated the Third Child next to her, “ _ is Shinji Ikari. Last year while I was in a coma, he used the sight of my body to pleasure himself. He was manipulated into being the trigger for Third Impact. When I came back from Instrumentality, he tried to strangle me. Such a person should inspire  _ _**disgust** _ _ in me at the very least. Do you understand me so far?” _

The man nodded hesitantly, and Asuka continued. “ _By all rights, I should have beaten him to within an inch of his life and kicked him the rest of the way. He betrayed me._ _ **Hurt**_ _me. But he is my_ _ **boyfriend**_ _now. I forgave him for everything that happened. But you?_ ” Her father withered as she stared at him. “ _I feel nothing_ _for you. No anger, no sense of betrayal._ _ **Nothing**_. _I care more about what I'm going to have for dinner tonight than the pathetic worm that abandoned my mother and I. Do I make myself clear?_ ”

Dropping his gaze from the fiery redhead, the man nodded dejectedly. He glanced upward for a moment and said, “ _ Asuka, I'm s- _ ”

Asuka's father vanished, as quickly as he had appeared.

“His time was up,” Lilith said simply by way of explanation, and Asuka nodded her approval.

“Are you all quite done, then?” Adam testily inquired. Now that he was no longer giant, his voice, while still deep and imposing, was not quite as loud as it was when Asuka first spoke to him.

The three teenagers glanced at each other. With a shrug, Asuka stepped forward and said, “Yeah, I guess we've done everything we can.”

“Doesn't feel like it though,” Shinji mumbled sadly.

His voice was so sad, so despondent, that Asuka swiftly enfolded him in a hug. Over his shoulder, she stared at the two gods.

“Can we just get this over with?” she almost demanded. “I really want to get the hell out of here.”

“Very well,” replied Lilith. “You shall be on your way in just a moment.”

The mother of humanity began to weave her hands again, but halted when Adam made a questioning noise and looked behind him.

“...Ah,” he said after a moment, causing Lilith to also look in that direction. “There is somebody who wishes to see you, Shinji Ikari.”

“W-wait, me?” said Shinji, twisting slightly out of Asuka's grip.

The Second Child was instantly on her guard. “If it's that damn 'father' of his...”

“No, it is not a human. Rather, it is one of my children who would like a moment of your time.”

“...What.”

“Huh...?”

“Excuse me?” Rei's response was only slightly more eloquent.

This time it was Adam's hands that weaved a pattern in the air. Black and white mist began to form behind him, swirling as if caught in a whirlwind for a moment before coalescing into a distressingly familiar, and _giant_ , figure. The three pilots recoiled in fear as they recognised just what exactly was coming to meet Shinji.

“You should know him rather well. It was his Fruit of Life that your chariot consumed. Shinji Ikari, this is my child, Zeruel; The Angel of Might,” Adam said by way of introduction.

The Fourteenth Angel towered above everybody else present, its paper-like arms folded tightly against its sides. The red core in its chest was dark and lifeless, but that did nothing to detract from the Angel's imposing presence.

Asuka let go of Shinji and stepped in front of him, dropping into a fighting stance with only a slight shaking of her limbs, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Rei do the same. If this Angel wanted revenge against Shinji, it was going to have to go through _them_ first.

The white mask of the Fourteenth Angel's face shifted, the jaw working itself like a person might smack its lips. It then opened its mouth fully.

“ **Greetings, young warrior.** ”

A part of Asuka's mind idly noted that the Angel spoke in a voice very similar to Adam's when he had still been giant, likely due to the familial relation coupled with their physical size; that part was swiftly told to shut the hell up.

“There is no need to fear. He is not here to do battle.”

Adam's words caused Asuka and Rei to relax only slightly. But before they could speak, the two girls were gently pushed aside as Shinji stepped between them. All Asuka could do was gape at the back of his head as the Third Child took several more steps towards Zeruel.

“What do you want with me?” the boy asked, staring up at the massive giant.

The Angel of Might leaned down slightly, pointing its mask at Shinji.  **“As one warrior to another, I wish to express my admiration for your bravery and skill in battle. You fought me, the strongest of the Angels, to a standstill. When your chariot fell silent, I was almost... disappointed. But in the end, I still fell to you.”**

Shinji remained silent, and Zeruel continued. “ **Know now that you have the recognition of Zeruel, the Angel of Might.”** One of its arms unfurled, and it waved the arm in a parting gesture. **“Go now, and let nothing stand in your path. Let none say that you are weak. You are Shinji Ikari. Slayer of Angels. Farewell.** ”

The whirlwind returned, scattering the atoms of the Angel to the far corners of Instrumentality before dying down.

“...Did Shinji just get a pep talk from a fucking _Angel_?!” Asuka incredulously wondered. She threw her arms up in a manner that suggested she had had enough of everything. “Well that tears it. Get us home right now. I need some fucking sleep...”

Lilith gave her a thin smile, and resumed her work. The goddess' hands seemed to float through the air, and Asuka could not help but follow their path with her eyes, which suddenly seemed to be getting incredibly heavy. Perhaps she really _did_ need to go to sleep. There was certainly no way she just saw Lilith's right hand pass through her left arm. It had merely been a long, confusing day and she needed sleep.

Asuka shut her eyes for a moment. Just a moment.

“Asuka. Wake up.”

And opened them again.

* * *

On the shore a girl awoke, and stared up at the afternoon sky. A few seconds later her upper body shot up to vertical and she stared across the water, brushing a lock of red hair off her face with her left hand.

There was a massive orange ball floating above the water, rapidly drawing away from them. For some reason this didn't faze the girl.

“Are you alright, Asuka?”

She turned to her left. A girl with blue hair, wearing a school uniform, was kneeling on the sand nearby, gazing concernedly at her. The redhead's brain finally kicked into gear. Asuka. Right. That was her name. She vigorously shook her head, red hair flying all about her, to clear the last of the cobwebs from her mind.

“Yeah, I'm fine, Wondergirl,” she finally said as soon as the brief dizziness passed. “Where are we?”

“This is the same part of the beach where you and Shinji once returned from Instrumentality.”

Asuka raised an eyebrow. “How are you so sure?” Rei pointed to her right, and she looked in that direction. “...Oh.”

Several familiar wooden grave markers sat in the sand. The same ones that Shinji had placed when he had started to believe that nobody else would return from Instrumentality.

Shinji.

“Wait, where's-”

“Right next to you. You are holding his hand.”

Her left hand was empty, as that was the one that had brushed her hair away from her face. She gently clenched her right hand, and was rewarded with the sensation of flesh and bone putting up resistance. And then she received a returning squeeze.

Asuka's head swivelled sharply around, her nose coming within millimetres of colliding with the one on the face of the brown-haired boy staring intently at her.

“Hi Asuka,” Shinji said with a weak grin. “I, um, won't bother asking how you're feeling.”

Asuka sighed and let her head droop a little, so that their foreheads bumped gently together. “I'll tell you anyway, dummy: _tired_.”

“Well the good news is that you still have a bed to sleep in, it seems.” Shinji used his other arm to point towards Tokyo-3. “Looks like everything's still intact. That orange ball thing is moving out over the ocean.”

“That is... what is left of Instrumentality, I believe,” Rei clarified. “Adam and Lilith are still in there, but they will be leaving Earth very soon.”

Wait.

His _other_ arm.

Asuka yanked her hand out of Shinji's left hand and attached it to his right. Again she gave a squeeze, and...

Got another squeeze in return.

She wasn't going to jump to conclusions, though. Maybe Lilith had been nice enough to reattach his prosthetic limbs too. Somehow. They would have still been in Unit-01's entry plug anyway. Was she omniscient and thus knew how to deal with prosthetics? Maybe Shinji had just been paying attention.

Asuka pinched the skin on the back of Shinji's right hand, and watched as the boy's face twitched a little.

“You... you felt that?” she whispered.

“Um, so there's good news, good news and a little bad news,” said Shinji with an embarrassed chuckle. “The other good news is that... well...” He wiggled his right elbow a little. “Just like Toji, I came back whole.”

Asuka looked down. There, half-buried in the sand, were his school uniform-covered legs. _All_ of his legs.

Shinji was nearly bowled over as the redhead threw her arms around him in a joyful hug. As it was he had to put an arm out as best as he could within the embrace just to keep the two of them from toppling into the sand.

“I believe it can be said that we are all okay now,” came Rei's voice from behind Asuka, who gave an abashed cough before pulling herself and Shinji to their feet.

“So what's the bad news?” asked Asuka.

“Well, um...” Shinji nervously scratched the back of his head. “There's actually two bits of bad news now. I don't know if the patrols are still running along the beach, so it might be a while before anybody knows we're back.”

Asuka shrugged. “Fine, then we'll walk back to the city. What's the other bad news? Did you twist your ankle? That's just great. Not even an hour back on your new legs and you've already hurt yourself.”

“No, nothing to do with me. It's... um... _that._ ” Shinji pointed skyward, and the two girls turned around.

Though they were still far away, there was no mistaking the trails of dozens of missiles streaking across the sky.

“Are those...” Asuka began, horror creeping into her voice.

Rei nodded. “They are missiles. Heading directly for Adam and Lilith.”

The Second Child's eyes were now like dinner plates. “...They're fucking _nukes!_ ” she yelled.

Shinji gasped in horror, before making a questioning noise. “W-wait! How do you know they're nuclear missiles and not N2s?”

“Because Misato probably watched us go down and decided it was time to nuke the assholes!” After a glance between the incoming missiles and the orange ball moving steadily away, she added, “I'll bet they're the strongest ones she could get. We'll probably be _caught in the blast!_ ”

Rei's eyes widened to match Asuka's. “Oh... _shit,_ ” she whispered, before getting to her feet and sprinting across the beach.

“W-Hey! Wondergirl, I hope you're leading us to an Angel Shelter!” Asuka shouted, before grabbing Shinji's hand and taking off after the fleeing bluenette.

“No!” Rei yelled over her shoulder. “There's a NERV outpost on the beach to aid people returning from Instrumentality! Even if nobody's on duty, there should still be communication equipment we can use!”

Even while dragging the Third Child, Asuka soon caught up with the other girl. “How the hell do you know where it is?”

“Because that's where I was first taken when I returned!” Rei said, before putting on a burst of speed.

In a few seconds, the outpost was right in front of them, and Rei only halted once she was inside the perimeter. Her head jerked sharply around for a moment, before heading into a tent that looked exactly the same as the others.

Asuka and Shinji made it to the tent just in time to catch Rei say, “-me through to Commander Katsuragi! This is urgent!” A pause as she listened. “My authorisation is that I am the First Child, Rei Ayanami. Now patch me through or I'll see to it that you get reassigned to _waste management!_ … Misato! It's Rei! I need you to-”

Even Asuka could hear the shriek through the handset as Misato let the extent of her joy be known. She growled and pulled the handset away from Rei. “Misato! It's Asuka! Shinji's here too, now shut up and listen! You need to stop those nukes!”

“ _Asuka?! Where a-”_

There was no time to waste. Asuka injected as much urgency as she could into her voice. “Stop the nukes!  _Now!_ Adam and Lilith are leaving Earth! They're no longer a threat to us!  _DO IT!”_

“ _...Alright, alright. I'll trust you, Asuka. We're sending the order now. Just... stay on the line? Please?”_

Asuka glanced at Rei, before jerking her head in the direction of the entrance to the tent. The girl ran outside, and for several agonising seconds there was no word, before...

“Nothing is happening!” Rei's voice reported, turning frantic. “They're about to hit!”

“Are we out of the blast radius?” Asuka asked, directing the question to both Rei and Misato.

“I... don't know!”

“Misato! Hurry!” Asuka hurriedly looked around the tent for something, _anything_ to use as protection.

“ _Calm down, everything's fine now,”_ came Misato's reassuring voice. _“Those missiles were being laser-guided by the bombers. The pilots have been given the order to abort, and the lasers have been shut off. With no guidance, the missiles will fail-safe and not detonate on impact with anything. Gonna be a pain in the ass to recover them though...”_

“They-” Rei's voice cut off for a moment, and then she said, “...Oh. They have passed directly through and crashed into the ocean. With no explosion.”

All three teenagers let out a sigh of relief at the news.

“Rei...” Shinji began. “Were you... just going to stand out there and watch them go off?”

The First Child said nothing for so long that Asuka began to think she had wandered off. Then the tent flaps parted and Rei shuffled in, staring at her feet.

“I... do not know why I remained out there,” she bashfully admitted.

“ _Asuka? You still there?”_

Asuka rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the radio. “Yeah, we're still alive. Missiles passed through and hit the ocean.”

“ _That matches what we were just told. Now then... Just where the hell are you kids?!_ ”

* * *

“The preparations are finally complete?”  
  


“Yes. Would you like a moment to say goodbye to your children?”

“...I think that would cause unnecessary problems at this stage.”

“And you? No problems with that temporary body?”

“Why is my chest so flat?”

“...Shall we proceed?”

“Yes.”

* * *

A flash of light through the tent flap caught the attention of the three teenagers. They glanced at each other, before stepping outside and immediately being forced to shield their eyes.

The sky was glowing.

At least, that was the first impression Asuka got. Eventually, she was able to make out the floating orange ball of Instrumentality, and she noticed right away that it had changed. The orange hue was much darker, and there were cracks running all along its surface, like an egg about to hatch. White light spilled from the cracks, casting almost completely black shadows everywhere and overpowering the light of the sun.

The egg hatched.

With a shattering noise that forced Asuka to clap hands to her ears, chunks of hardened LCL flew in all directions as the piercing light went out. Most of the pieces landed in the ocean, but the ball had been close enough to land that Asuka wondered if any buildings had been hit.

And then she saw the three figures shooting up into the sky, spiralling around each other like planes at an air show. She could only just make out the red, purple and blue Evangelions before they were lost to sight within seconds, travelling faster than the missiles that had almost struck them.

A tiny voice pulled Asuka back into the tent and towards the discarded radio handset. She picked it up and held it to her ear.

“ _Asuka? Asuka are you there? What happened?!”_

“I'm here,” she replied. “... _Something_ just happened.”

“ _We know. MAGI picked up the biggest Pattern Blue signal ever._ ”

Asuka chuckled. “Probably the  _last_ one ever.”

Misato was just as quick with her reply. “ _**Hopefully** the last one ever._ ”

* * *

On the shore a boy awoke, and stared up at something he thought he saw leaving the planet's atmosphere. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, but whatever it was had disappeared without a trace. He sat up and looked at his surroundings, which consisted of sand, salt water, and a sand dune leading up to solid ground

He stood up, swaying slightly as he tried to adjust to his own legs, and fought down a wave of dizziness.

“New body. Weird,” he muttered to himself. “And I appear to have been... kicked out?”

After an awkward climb to the top of the dune, the boy took a better look around. With the new perspective came confirmation of where he had ended up; back near Tokyo-3. Just as he was about to head towards the city, he noticed several broken chunks of orange material washing up on the beach.

“...I guess it was a good thing, then?” he wondered. “But what does that mean for those that were still trapped in there? And... did _they_ get out in time?” He shook his head ruefully. “What am I saying? Of course they did.”

The boy's thoughts were interrupted by a loud and harsh noise from behind and above. He turned, and saw a VTOL aircraft passing overhead, flying towards what looked like several tents near the other end of the beach. It set down for a few minutes, before taking off and flying back over him.

“I suppose it's too much to ask for a ride?” he quietly called after it, before suddenly turning pale as the aircraft halted and swung back around. It was hovering directly overhead before he could even think about whether the occupants had actually heard him.

The aircraft descended, and the boy saw what at first glance looked like a fireball sticking to its side, before he realised it was a red-headed teenager looking out of the passenger compartment directly at him.

Or rather, glaring at him.

The girl jumped out of the transport craft as it neared the ground, bending her legs to absorb the impact, but kept her gaze locked onto him. She remained still for a moment, as the downwash from the jet engines blew her red locks about like a fiery tail.

“I thought it was you,” she finally yelled over the noise of the engines, before stalking towards him.

Too afraid of the look on her face, the boy remained frozen to the spot, unable to move as the irate girl approached. He knew what was to befall him, but that knowledge was useless.

And so once again he ended up on the ground in the foetal position, clutching at something he had never imagined could be capable of feeling such horrendous agony.

“We're _still_ not even, Nagisa,” said Asuka Langley-Soryru as she grabbed him by the shirt with one hand and dragged him to the aircraft. “But we're definitely a bit closer now.”

“It's... nice to see... you too,” Kaworu groaned, but his words were drowned out by the aircraft spinning up its engines.

He was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the passenger compartment, and through the pain Kaworu made out who else had been picked up from the outpost.

“Hello, Nagisa,” said Misato as soon as the door closed and cut out much of the vehicle's noise. “Consider yourself under arrest for the time being.”

“The reason I am not hurting you right now,” said Rei, “is because my brother is watching and I have more restraint than Asuka.”

Shinji, meanwhile, was too stunned to speak. All he could do was stare at the white-haired boy who had befriended then betrayed him.

And Kaworu found he could not maintain eye contact with the person he had forced to kill him.

Tense minutes passed, as the teenagers stared at Kaworu. Eventually, Rei sighed and reached down to force him out of the foetal position and flat onto his back, stating that the new position would aid in recovery after such an injury.

When they finally arrived at NERV headquarters, armed guards were waiting for them as the passenger door opened.

“This seems... a bit much,” Kaworu noted, but did not resist as he was passed into the custody of the guards and cuffed.

“You infiltrated NERV under false pretences, caused extensive damage to military property, and almost brought about Third Impact,” Misato stated. “Pardon me for being _cautious_ this time. Whether you're still an Angel or not, you're potentially dangerous.”

The former Angel bowed his head. “I understand. Do with me as you wish. It will be less than I deserve. But before you take me away, may I say one last thing?”

Misato frowned, but nodded her acquiescence. Kaworu looked directly at Shinji, who flinched slightly at the attention before Asuka's reassuring hand found his.

“Shinji... I don't expect you to ever forgive me for what I did to you, but I am truly sorry for everything that happened between us last year.”

The Third Child finally spoke. “Just answer me this,” he said with a calm voice despite the anger in his eyes. “What you said to me last year, about us being... friends... were you telling the truth?”

Kaworu nodded resolutely. “Yes. Everything that I said to you was truthful.”

Shinji looked away and sighed. The anger faded a little from his features. “In that case, once NERV is... done with you, I wouldn't mind... if you paid us a visit sometime.”

One of the guards tugged on Kaworu's arm, and the boy let himself be taken away in silence. He kept a smile on his face towards Shinji, even as a crying woman came running into the area and tackled Asuka to the ground.

* * *

One of the three glowing figures halted at a point a few hundred thousand kilometres past the Earth's moon, and turned to look at the blue and green marble they had just left. Its two companions stopped a short distance away. The human-created armour began to detach from their bodies and drift away. The pieces would soon burn up in the atmosphere, causing another interesting show for the planet's populace.

“Not having second thoughts, are you?” wondered the red-armoured, masculine one of the trio. No sound could travel in the void of space, but all three heard him anyway. “It's a little late to change your mind.”

“No,” said the androgynous one in blue armour who had first stopped. “I'm just... taking one last look.”

“Despite what Adam said, it isn't quite too late,” said the feminine one. A piece of purple and green plate detached from her shoulder, and she distractedly reached up to knock it away as it brushed against her face. “You have until we reach the edge of this solar system to change your mind, Yui.”

Yui shook her head, slowly. Her temporary body felt strange, even for somebody who had once controlled a similar enough construct. Perhaps it was the fact that she was now in a body made from Adam, instead of Lilith.

“I've made my decision, Lilith,” she said, before holding a hand out in such a way that to her eye she appeared to be holding Earth in her palm. She smiled as best as she could with a face with no mouth.

“Goodbye, Shinji,” she whispered.

With a final parting glance, she moved to rejoin the two Angels.

_ 'Interesting,'  _ Yui thought to herself, after some time had passed as they continued their journey to the edge of the solar system, and her scientific mind began to go to work. _ 'How are we propelling ourselves through space? And this quickly? It was only a few minutes or so to reach the moon. No visible form of propulsion. Is an AT-Field involved? How did those Angels that could hover propel themselves? Gravitational waves generated by their S2 organs, perhaps? I wish I had time to study this... Oh? Are we already coming up on Neptune? That's  _ _ thirty _ _ astronomical units in... just a few hours!' _

Adam soon held up a hand, bringing all three to a halt an unknown distance past Neptune. Almost all of their armour was gone now, only a few chunks left sticking to their limbs.

Something was waiting for them. Something that was coloured like the galaxy's most demented spherical chess board.

“Isn't that the Twelfth Angel?” Yui gasped upon recognising the black and white orb. “Didn't... didn't I...um... kill it?”

Both Adam and Lilith chuckled at the confused scientist. “You merely damaged one of its apertures,” Adam explained. “For which Leliel is a little unhappy with you.”

“Leliel? ...Oh...” Yui gulped. “Um... please tell it- _them_... that I'm sorry.”

The ball rippled, before letting out a sound that made Yui wish her temporary form had eyebrows.

“Did... did that abstract mathematical anomaly just _chirp at me?!_ ”

“Of course not,” Lilith replied. She turned her attention to Adam. “Have you actually decided _where_ we're going to settle down?”

The masculine Angel huffed. “Only since I came to the conclusion that Earth would be spared.”

Lilith gestured, taking in as much of the cosmos as she could in one wave of her arm. “Then please, direct us to our new home.”

Adam's head swivelled for a few seconds, then a finger stabbed towards a distant star. “We shall go there, Leliel.”

The ball rippled and chirped.

“There! It-they just did it again!” Yui exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the Angel.

“Stop levelling baseless accusations at my children,” replied Adam.

Yui sighed and gave up, even as a sound reached her ears -or whatever her auditory receptors were in the void of space- that sounded like a twittering bird.

Turning his back on the exasperated scientist, Adam spoke to Lilith. “Epsilon Eridani is my choice. Any objections?”

Lilith folded her arms. “Well, it's not my first choice, but it's not my last either.”

“Then let us go.”

As he finished speaking, Adam held out a hand towards Lilith. The goddess reached for it, before hesitating and drawing back fearfully. The First Angel slapped his forehead in realisation, then gestured towards the last piece of red armour to detach, drawing it from his thigh up to his hand, where the metal began to shift and melt, forming itself around the hand before hardening again. In a second, he once more had a red metal gauntlet.

Lilith caught on quickly, and did the same. When she had her own purple gauntlet, she reached out, still hesitantly, to Adam.

Yui expected  _something_ to still happen when their hands clasped. She just wasn't expecting that something to be her letting out an involuntary squeal.

Two Angels and a mathematical anomaly stared at her. Though Yui could feel heat in her face, she had no idea if an Angel was capable of blushing. She cleared what was probably her throat.

“Don't we have somewhere to be?”

Lilith smiled widely. “Of course.”

The black-and white orb shimmered, and an inky pool of darkness began to grow, blotting out the stars as it expanded. For a brief moment Yui wondered if she had just hastened the destruction of the universe, before she shifted perspective slightly and saw past the edge of the void.

“After you,” Adam said with a gesture towards the portal. “Oh yes, I should mention that it may feel a bit... odd.”

“I've been living in an Evangelion for ten years,” Yui haughtily replied as she moved towards the portal. “I'm very used t-”

The void swallowed her.

“You didn't send her somewhere else, did you?” Lilith asked.

Adam shrugged. “Maybe.” At a pointed glare from the other Angel he conceded. “...No.”

“Good. Her punishment will _not_ be being stranded.”

“But how exactly is _this_ a punishment, even a self-imposed one? Simply never being able to see her child again?”

Lilith sighed and shook her head. “You clearly don't understand humans, Adam. Or mothers.”

Humanity's progenitor cast one last glance back towards Earth, before pulling them both into the void.


	31. Chapter 31

Misato knocked firmly on the apartment door. She had a key, but politeness prevented her from simply barging in. And judging by the sounds she heard through the door, it was a good thing even if it meant less teasing material for later.

The man next to her smirked. “Wonder who it was that fell off the couch,” Kaji remarked.

“Asuka. I recognised the swearing,” Misato replied, right before the door opened and two teenage faces looked out at them, the boy attempting to stealthily readjust his shirt.

“You guys are early,” said Asuka, before ushering them in.

“Didn't interrupt anything, did we?”

The two adults smirked at the nervous looks the younger couple gave each other. “Nothing that can't be picked up again later,” Asuka finally said.

When they got to the lounge room, Misato and Kaji took a seat on dining chairs that the redhead moved in for them. Shinji sat down near one end of the loveseat while Asuka elected to sprawl out, covering as much of the remaining room, as well as Shinji's lap, as she could. The moment she was comfortable, he rested a hand on her exposed stomach.

It was then that Misato finally realised what the red-headed teen was wearing.

Asuka was wearing a button-up shirt that was clearly Shinji's, but had apparently not bothered to actually fasten the buttons at all. Underneath, Misato was somewhat surprised at the rather plain bra the former Second Child had on, considering how she was apparently walking around the house in front of her boyfriend. And in front of her two former guardians now.

“...I hope you two are being safe,” she cautioned, as she became concerned about what exactly her arrival had interrupted.

Surprisingly for both adults, there was no embarrassed outbursts from either one of them.

“We've already talked about... um... _that_ ,” Shinji replied. “Asuka and I don't feel that we're ready to take that step yet.”

“Once we're both done with university, then we'll discuss... _that_ again,” Asuka added.

Kaji raised an impressed eyebrow. “Wow, that's incredibly mature of both of you.”

“So then why are you dressing like that in front of your boyfriend?” said Misato.

“What, I'm not allowed to be comfortable while on semester break? Those university uniforms are horribly restricting and give you about as much sex appeal as an old brick wall.”

“I've seen some interesting brick walls in my line of work...” Kaji mused, rubbing his chin and grinning, before an elbow in his side stopped him.

Asuka thanked Misato with a nod of the head before continuing. “Anyway, if I don't have to go to a class, I just put on whatever's nearby. Today that just happened to be Shinji's shirt. Besides, it's not like he's going to complain about how I dress. Isn't that right, Shinji?” She shot her boyfriend a toothy grin over her shoulder, causing him to blush furiously.

Then he grinned back at her, and it was Asuka's turn to go redfaced.

Misato cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the flirting teens back to her. “So... how has your first semester been?”

The redhead snorted. “Definitely a lot less boring than going to  _school_ again. And at least this time I don't have people looking at me funny because I'm kicking their academic asses while being nearly half their age.”

“My culinary classes have been giving me plenty of new ideas,” said Shinji. “And helping me refine what I already know.”

Asuka began speaking again, almost before Shinji had finished. “Fortunately, the teacher understands that we're a couple, so we end up working together a lot.”

Misato nodded. “What about your Business course, Asuka? Any problems there?”

Asuka shook her head. “Nothing I can't handle.”

“What are you actually planning to do once you have your second degree?” Kaji asked.

The former Evangelion pilots looked at each other for a moment before, in perfect synchronisation, replying, “It's a secret.”

The two adults stared nonplussed at them for several long seconds. “...I'm still not used to that,” Misato muttered.

Asuka did reveal that they were carefully planning out what they were going to do after graduating, and that the money they received just before NERV's dissolution would be going towards it.

“Enough about us, though,” the redhead finally said. “How's everybody else been doing?”

“Is Doctor Akagi still grumpy about me losing the prostheses?” Shinji cautiously asked.

“Nah, she got over that a long time ago,” Misato replied with a dismissive wave. “Too busy working on new stuff now, not to mention the fact that she _finally_ proposed to Maya.”

Asuka rolled her eyes. “About damn time.”

“Yep. And you two are invited to the wedding. Anyway, the next generation of prosthetics WILLE's working on will have... um...” Misato glanced helplessly at Kaji. “What did she say it was? Sub cute-something?”

“Subcutaneous circuitry,” Kaji supplied. “To simulate body temperature in order to make them feel more real.”

“That would have been nice a while ago,” Shinji murmured, looking down at his right arm. Sensing his mood change, Asuka brought up a hand to rest on top of his, and he smiled at her.

“Anyway, your friends have been doing well too,” Misato continued. “Toji and Hikari seem almost as inseparable as you two now, Kensuke's had at least two new girlfriends that I've heard of, and Rei...” She paused, looking at Kaji again, but this time all the man could offer was a shrug.

“What? What's going on with her?” Shinji asked, leaning forward with worry in his eyes.

“Hmm? Oh. No, it's nothing bad, just...” Misato scratched her head. “The best I can say is that she and Kaworu have a... relationship.”

Asuka raised an eyebrow. “And just what is happening in this significant pause relationship?”

“No idea. Kaworu's been spending a lot of time with her lately. I wouldn't say they're _together_ , especially since she seems to slap him a lot, but that doesn't seem to have deterred the boy.”

“Now who does that remind you of?” Kaji wondered with a grin.

“I have no idea,” Asuka exaggeratedly replied. “Shinji, do you know anybody like that?”

Quick on the uptake, Shinji said, “Not a clue.”

A knock on the front door paused the conversation, and Asuka got up to find out who it was. Misato heard the door open, followed immediately by a surprised female voice talking in German.

_"Asuka, warum bist du so angezogen!?"_

_"Tschu-tschuldige, Mama!"_

For a few seconds there was silence, presumably while Asuka hastily buttoned up her shirt, and then Kyoko Zeppelin-Soryu continued talking in Japanese.

“Well... I suppose I should get down to why I'm here on such short notice. Are you busy at the moment, dear?”

“Nope, just me and Shinji chatting with Misato and Kaji. Want to join us?”

“First, let me show you why I'm here now.”

There was more silence, and then...

“ _Katharina?!”_

* * *

Asuka stared in shock at the blonde woman, and Katharina Langley looked sheepishly back at her.

“Hello, Asuka,” she said in German. “I... hope it's alright that I'm here.”

“Uh...” Asuka rubbed the back of her head. “Of course it's fine. Why wouldn't it be?”

“Did Kyoko not tell you?” Katharina glanced at Kyoko, who shook her head. “Oh. Well... your father never came back from Instrumentality. Since apparently nobody would be able to return after... whatever happened at the end of the Revenant War, it's not really clear if I have any legal relationship with you anymore.”

“And what, you think I'd just cut you out of my life?” Asuka more stated than asked. She sighed before continuing. “I know we didn't really exactly get along perfectly when I was younger, but you were still a better person than _him._ Hell, I still have the violin you gave me. Even brought it with me when I came to this apartment I'm renting with Shinji for university. Look,” Asuka stepped back from the doorway, “come on in and join us. Everybody's catching up anyway.”

The two women entered the apartment, and Asuka brought two more dining chairs into the lounge room for them. Misato and Kaji rose to greet the new arrivals, both clearly surprised at the sight of Katharina. Shinji, having never actually seen Asuka's stepmother, was confused for a moment until he was filled in. Since everybody in the room could understand and speak German, they spoke in that language for the benefit of Katharina, who was not very fluent in Japanese.

“Ah, you were that boy I talked to on the phone,” Katharina realised, and Shinji nodded. “I remember thinking to myself that maybe Asuka had a boyfriend, but I wasn't about to jump to conclusions and ask.”

“Yeah, you would have been a year too early for that,” replied Asuka. “What have you been up to since that phone call, anyway?”

Her stepmother shrugged. “Just being a nurse, really. Certainly nothing as... interesting as your job. Although...” Her arms fell back to her sides. “I got laid off a couple of weeks ago due to cutbacks. That's why I finally had the time to come and see you.”

Kyoko spoke up. “She got in contact with me, and I helped arrange for her to come here. We're both staying at a hotel while we're visiting.”

“I'm not sure what I'll do when I head back home though,” Katharina admitted. “I've been thinking about selling my house and moving to America for a fresh start.”

Asuka noticed Kyoko and Misato looking at each other behind Katharina's back. The purple-haired woman cleared her throat.

“WILLE's got a hospital, and they're apparently a bit understaffed at the moment. If you'd like, I could get it touch with somebody who works there and see if they have room for an experienced nurse.”

Katharina looked shocked. “You... you would do that for me? I'll have to learn Japanese to fit in here though...”

“I heard what Asuka said a little while ago. She's as good as stated that you're still a part of her family. If you go to America, you'll be starting over in a place with nobody to help you. As for learning Japanese, well...” Misato threw her arms out to take in the whole room. “Everybody here speaks it, and there's at least three people who have nothing better to do than help you learn.”

“Oh? Who are they?” Kaji asked, before rocking forward as Misato's hand caught the back of his head on the return swing.

Katharina's head drooped, but not before Asuka saw the glistening in her eyes. “You're all... too kind to me...”

“Hey, hey.” Kyoko laid a hand on the blonde woman's shoulder. “You got suckered in by my bastard of a husband just like I did. I'm not about to leave you out in the cold.”

“...Thank you,” Katharina finally managed to say.

“Alright. Time for some cheering up,” Asuka announced as she stood up. She turned to her boyfriend. “Shinji Katsuragi, you know what to do.”

Shinji nodded and moved off to the kitchen. As soon as he was out of sight, Katharina hesitantly said, “I thought his family name was Ikari?”

“It was,” Misato replied. “But since his father was the Bastard King of NERV, the Ikari name is somewhat... tarnished. I pulled some strings for a name change, and since I'm his adoptive mother, my name made things easier.”

“Thanks for that by the way, Misato,” said Asuka. “I've heard people talking about that asshole at the university. I'm not exactly keen on finding out how many people believe in that whole 'sins of the father' thing.”

As the conversation turned towards more mundane topics, Asuka headed into the kitchen to see Shinji getting things out of the fridge. Though the rented apartment's cooking facilities weren't as great as what Rei Ayanami had gotten for Shinji's sixteenth birthday, the young man still worked veritable miracles.

“Will you be fine serving six people?” Asuka inquired. “It is kind of short notice.”

Shinji drew a knife out of its block and turned his head to grin at her. “Are you honestly asking me that now?”

Asuka chuckled. “Yeah, you're right. I guess it's just good practise for our plan.”

“I just hope it works out. It is kind of a big undertaking.”

“We'll make it work! The Great Asuka Langley-Soryu and the Invincible Shinji Ik- er... Katsuragi cannot be stopped!”

* * *

“So this is what you were planning?” Hikari asked as she stared in awe. “What you decided to go back to university for?”

Standing next to the brown-haired young woman, Asuka grinned. “Yep. What do you think?” she asked as she waved a hand at their surroundings.

Hikari hummed in thought. “It'll take a bit of work to fix up, but I can already imagine the possibilities. Have you decided what you're going to do with the interior design?”

“Nothing concrete yet,” Asuka admitted. “Shinji and I want to get the essentials sorted out first.”

The redhead raised an eyebrow as her friend moved to the centre of the room and began to slowly spin around, taking in every aspect of the moderately-sized building.

“Before you do anything major, I want you to give me a floor plan along with your budget and any ideas you and Shinji have come up with,” said Hikari. Her eyes sparkled. “I can help with this.”

“I was hoping you'd say that. Just leave Husband-Stooge out of any plans, unless he's part of the labour.”

Hikari mock-pouted at the friendly jab against Toji, but then smiled. “No need to worry about that. My darling husband has been permanently banned from anything remotely related to decoration.”

“...I won't ask.”

“And I won't tell.” The former class representative shuddered. “Where's Shinji, anyway?”

Asuka jerked a thumb towards the nearby swinging door. “Checking out the kitchen, of course. He's back-of-house, I'm front-of-house. This is my domain, and that's his. We've both got more than enough cash left over from NERV that we can essentially do whatever we like here.”

Hikari glanced at the door, before lowering her voice and saying, “Hey, um... it's been a while now. How has he been doing with... you know...”

Asuka caught on quickly. “He's better. Still gets the odd nightmare, but it's been months since the last one and he knows I'll always be there for him. He's really shy and quiet around strangers, which is actually kind of normal for him, but he can at least hold a decent conversation with them. We decided on a smaller place because Shinji didn't want to be in charge of a horde of kitchen staff. Not to mention that we're just starting out.”

Hikari nodded. “That's understandable. Oh, and speaking of staff, will it just be you two?”

Red hair cascaded about as Asuka shook her head. “Hell no. I'm great, but not _that_ great. We'll be aiming for two or three more people for the front, and one or two for the kitchen. Surprisingly, Rei asked if we could give her some part time work here.”

“In that case... I have a favour to ask,” Hikari began hesitantly.

“Of course your little sister can have a job here.”

Hikari sputtered in surprise, her eyes widening. “Can-... wh-... How did you know?!”

Though she tried to contain it, it wasn't long before Asuka began to laugh. “Double university graduate, remember?”

“That's no explanation!”

“We were talking about Shinji, then staff. Kodama already has a job, you know I would find it hard to trust a friend of yours that I don't already know, and Nozomi's standing outside, staring in at us.”

Hikari spun around to see that her friend was right. She huffed and strode out of the partially renovated restaurant, squinting slightly as her eyes readjusted to the bright sun hanging over Tokyo-2.

Outside, Asuka saw the reason for the surprise appearance of Hikari's younger sister. A familiar blue sports car was sitting at the kerb, with two familiar faces sitting in the front seats.

“What part of 'surprise' don't you get, Misato?” Asuka growled at the car's driver, who offered a sheepish grin in response.

“Well she was going to find out soon anyway,” Misato replied. “Met her at the mall and she wanted to know where Big Sis had disappeared to. So how are things in there, anyway?”

“Pretty good. Hikari's now in charge of prettying the place up. Hopefully by this time next month we'll be nearly ready to open. Now then...” Asuka turned to Nozomi. “You want to be a waitress here when we open for business?”

“I'd love to, if you're hiring that is,” Nozomi replied. “I don't exactly have a resume, but I can give you the phone number of a reference.”

“How much experience do you have?”

“Nine months part-time, before the place had to close down.”

“Alright, that's fine with me, and Shinji should be happy with it too,” said Asuka after a moment of thought. “You've obviously been working long enough to know what to do and how, but do you enjoy it?”

Several more questions and answers went back and forth. During that time, Shinji came out and greeted everybody. Finally, Asuka shook hands with Nozomi and congratulated her on becoming their first employee.

* * *

The weeks quickly passed, and the restaurant took shape. Hikari worked wonders, her plan transforming the interior and making it appear to have much more space. Shinji ended up bringing in a classmate from his culinary course at university for an assistant chef, and two more waiters were hired to fill out the staff roster.

Opening night came, and Misato was surprised at how quickly the place filled up. She and Kaji had been there for most of the day already, helping to set things up for opening night, while Kyoko and Katharina arrived almost as soon as the doors opened to the public. Toji, Hikari, Kensuke, Rei and Kaworu all came in slightly later. They were now all seated at a long table near the entrance, watching people trickle into the restaurant until they had to be turned away.

Asuka took their orders, and came back a few minutes later. She asked to speak to Misato, and the two of them moved to a quieter spot near the kitchen door.

“What's up?” Misato asked, once she saw the nervousness on her former ward's face. Asuka was pacing back and forth for a few seconds, one hand covering her mouth and the other in the pocket of her uniform. Eventually she looked up at Misato.

“Something big is going to happen tonight,” she said. “I don't know if it's a good idea for it to happen now, but it's been put off for too long.”

Misato folded her arms. “Mind filling in some of those gaps?”

Asuka looked around furtively, focusing on the door to the kitchen for a moment, before withdrawing the hand that was in her pocket. Misato's eyes shot wide open when she saw the small jewellery box clenched tightly in the younger woman's fingers.

“...Are you serious?!” she whispered, barely keeping a shriek of joy down. “You're going to propose to Shinji?”

“Yeah,” Asuka quietly replied, glancing towards the kitchen again. “Look, I love Shinji. We've been together for ages now, so I know that he still has... insecurities. As much as I'd like for him to be the one to bend a knee, I know it's going to be a while longer before he can get up the courage.”

“So you're going to do it instead.” Misato looked at the box. “May I?” At Asuka's small nod of the head, she took the jewellery box and opened it up.

“It was Katharina's,” Asuka explained. “She and Mama are the only other ones that know about what I want to do. Mama had obviously lost her engagement ring, so Katharina jumped in and offered her own instead.”

“Pretty,” Misato remarked as she closed the box and gave it back, watching it swiftly disappear into Asuka's pocket. “So when are you going to propose?”

“Soon. Just waiting for things to settle down a little. I'm going to get everybody's attention and thank them for coming to the opening night, then bring Shinji out to give his thanks.”

“Shinji? Talking to a room full of people?”

“We've practised what he's going to say; he just doesn't know about the proposal at the end.”

Misato chuckled. “Well, you've given me something else to look forward to tonight.”

Asuka smiled, then blinked a few times. “Oh right. Shinji said he wanted to talk to you.”

“Did he say what it was about?”

  
Asuka shrugged. “No, just that he's too busy to come out, and that you were welcome to go into the kitchen. He probably wants to thank you for coming out tonight.”

“Alright, I'll go chat to him now and let you get back to work,” Misato said with a smile and a pat on the young woman's shoulder.

Asuka nodded and walked off, casting another glance at the kitchen as she went.

Misato walked over to the kitchen door, stepping aside as Nozomi bustled out and gave her a quick greeting, before pushing through the still-swinging door like she owned the building. In the kitchen, Shinji and his assistant were rushing about, preparing several dishes at once. She soon caught her adopted son's eye, who offered a quick wave before returning his attention to the cutting board.

“Asuka said you wanted to talk to me,” said Misato as Shinji swiftly diced some vegetables. The chef's jacket made him look rather smart, she idly noted.

“Um, yes,” Shinji absently replied. In his hands, a large cabbage became dozens of pieces in a few seconds. “There's... um... something I'm planning to do tonight.”

“Yeah, Asuka told me about how you two are going to thank everybody for coming tonight.”

Shinji nodded. “After that... I'm going to do something else.”

Shock and amusement dawned on Misato's face as Shinji spoke, detailing his plan to propose to Asuka. She had to struggle mightily to force her expression back to neutral, and she was thankful for the young man's distractedness.

“I just hope she likes the ring I decided on,” Shinji sighed. “It would have been nice to use my mother's ring instead, but...” He looked up at Misato and shrugged, and she nodded in understanding. Behind her relaxed expression, she was internally cheering and laughing at what was going to happen tonight.

“I'll let you get back to work then,” she said. Shinji nodded, and Misato left the kitchen and made her way back to her table.

“What was that about?” Kaji quietly asked as he leaned closer to Misato.

The former Supreme Commander of NERV and foster mother of Shinji Katsuragi put an arm around the former triple-agent's shoulder. “Something is going to happen tonight,” she whispered in his ear. “Something amazing.”

The food soon arrived, and it was everything Misato had expected and more. She cast a casual eye around the restaurant as she ate. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, as well as their meals. After half an hour of pleasant conversation with the others at her table, mostly revolving around the restaurant, Misato heard the sound of cutlery tapping against glass.

“Can I have everybody's attention please?”

Every customer turned their gaze to the front counter, where Asuka was now standing. Misato listened intently as the young woman gave her sincere thanks to the customers for coming to the opening night of the restaurant. Shinji was brought out from the kitchen, and he bowed as he gave his thanks as well.

“Before I let you all get back to your meals,” said Asuka. “There's one more thing...”

Misato leaned forward, a grin slowly forming on her face. She tried not to blink as she didn't want to miss a second of the scene that was about to unfold. Under the table, she felt Kaji's hand brush her leg as it slowly reached down to her handbag. She had a good idea just what he was taking out, and she patted his knee in approval.

Shinji and Asuka were already accidentally talking in perfect sync, each attempting to announce that they had something important to say. They turned their heads and eyed each other as the patrons began to chuckle. The impromptu show continued as they attempted to let the other person take the lead, and the synchronised palm to the face elicited more laughter. After a minute, the couple seemed to give up.

In perfect sync, they put a hand in their pocket. In perfect sync, they dropped to one knee as they drew small boxes out of the pockets. Misato heard nearby customers whisper as they began to realise what was about to happen.

“Shinji/Asuka...” they said at once. “Will you marry me?”

As one, they both smiled. As one, they both said a single word: “Yes.”

A camera flash went off next to Misato, and the patrons began to cheer and clap as the newly engaged couple stood up and kissed, slipping their ring onto their partner's finger.

Misato felt wetness on her cheeks. She didn't bother to wipe it away, as she wanted nothing to come between her and the wonderful scene playing out in front of her.

The sad teenager she had met almost ten years ago was now a fine young man. The angry German girl was now a beautiful young woman. Shinji and Asuka had been through the worst the universe could throw at them, and while there had been stumbling blocks, they had managed to overcome them.

“Come on, let's go congratulate them,” said Kaji as he stood up, breaking her out of her musing. The rest of the table was already heading towards Shinji and Asuka.

Misato laughed quietly as she rested a hand on her belly for a few seconds. “I guess our little surprise can wait a bit longer,” she whispered, before standing up and heading over towards her former wards.

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm finally getting around to posting this on AO3. Gotta do some extra proofreading though, since I'm still finding minor problems just in the first chapter.
> 
> Despite reading plenty of fics on AO3 I don't really know what tags this story should have besides the blatantly obvious ones like the main characters. If you've already read the story on FFN or SV, please let me know what tags you think would be suitable.
> 
> Oh, and I don't know if he's even around anymore, but I want to once more give thanks to Mike Mars aka Mr M. Mars, author of That Which Could (Not) Happen, for encouraging me to start writing Ya(N)aF all those years ago.


End file.
